As most of you know, I live in Center City, Philadelphia and I walk EVERYWHERE! But, this one particular day, it was a little too toasty outside and I decided to take a taxi up to the Northern Liberties section of town. Now, I usually just hail a taxi from the street but because I was coming out of the Marriott Starbucks, I decided to take one from there.
So, the bell hop calls the taxi up, tells him where I am going, and I hop in. The driver immediately asks me where I am from and I say “South Carolina” because, well, that’s where I grew up. When people ask me that question, I never think they are referring to the city I reside in.
In any case, he asks how I like Philly and we proceed into mindless banter until I notice he is literally taking me in circles, when my destination was a straight shot. For my Philly peeps, from the hotel, we made a left on 11th, a right on Race, a right on 10th, a left on Market…and that’s when I started asking questions. He looped around two or three times, causing my otherwise $7 or $8 ride to go up to $14.
On the way there, he essentially lectured me about how I should’ve just taken the train because he could’ve gotten around $80 to take someone to the airport instead of my short trip up to No Libs (most of the cabs outside the hotel take customers to the airport, especially at the time I was out). I nicely explained to him that I didn’t make him become a taxi driver and if he wanted to pick and choose who to take, he should’ve started a private driving service.
After doing some investigating, I discovered that some taxi drivers manipulate visiting passengers by finding out if they are from out of town and then taking some asinine route to get to the destination. Of course, this means more money for the driver and his tips but, unfortunately, the passengers are the victims of this modern day hustle.
I now refuse to take taxis in the city if there’s another form of transit around (train, Uber, or other car service). The thought of being taken advantage of in an unfamiliar environment infuriates me and makes me feel bad for the victims it happens to every day. And don’t get me started on how heated I get when I want to pay with a card (all cabs in Philly are required to give riders the choice of paying with a card) and essentially get thrown of the cab for not having cash or how the drivers don’t stop for me sometimes because they assume I want to go to an unsafe neighborhood (they actually admitted this to me)….just ugh!
So, the next time you are visiting in an unfamiliar city, use your GPS on your phone to get a general idea of where you are going so you don’t get taken advantage of like I did!!
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