arghghghgh! I just got home from work. It's late. So I got a taxi.

Since being in New York my image of a New York taxi driver has just crumbled. I used to have this perception that they were kind old men who spoke with heavy NY accents who were very knowledgeable about the city. I don't know where I got this from. Most do NOT have NY accents, and are in fact not native New Yorkers. Most ignore you - they're always talking on their mobile phones which is annoying when you're trying to tell them where you want to go and then they get the street wrong because they weren't listening properly in the first place. And some are dodgy - they drive like they think you don't know the city. Even though it's a grid, there are just certain things you do not do - sometimes they turn into streets where there's traffic, or take you across town when you're in midtown when you could have crossed town in the upper part of Manhattan where there's less traffic. And other times, they just drive extremely slowly....... Like the guy I had tonight. It was unbelievable. I've never seen anything like it. I had to say 'Do you THINK you could go a little faster?" He just kept crawling along and slowing down even further every time he got close to a traffic light in the hope it would turn red. And cars in front of us were about 10 meters ahead so it wasn't due to traffic. This guy was a loser. Who drives like that? I tipped him poorly.

PS I'm sure not ALL taxi drivers are like that, I have had some very nice ones, but it's people like this who give taxi drivers a bad name.