Taxi Hell

I spent Friday night at a house party on 17th and U. Good times. There was a dude playing records who called me a "fag" for requesting Justin Timberlake. That's always exciting.

Despite my sexuality being called into question (and I did request some JT, so I probably deserved it), the party really was delightful. So delightful that I decided to stay until after 3am when the Metro closes its gates. So, the only reasonable way to get home was via taxi. Luckily 17th and U was a block from a pretty busy strip of bars and stores. Hailing a cab shouldn't have been a problem. After standing outside for 20 minutes, I realized that I was mistaken.

What was so frustrating about my experience wasn't that I couldn't catch a cab. It was past 3am, so there were a lot of cabs that were already full. My problem was that I caught four cabs, and none of them would drive me to my intended destination in Friendship Heights. When I gave them my cross street, they told me they wouldn't drive me that far. One guy told me he would only drive me that far for $35. (Seriously.)

Well, legally, you have to you jackasses. The law is pretty clear. Once you guys stop you have to drive us to our intended destination. Shame on the DC Taxi Commission website for not having more details on this law, but I know it exists because it's on the back of every seat in a licensed cab. Regardless, a four mile drive seems more than reasonable. I understand that after the Metro closes you want to stay as close to the weekend hotspots as possible. That maximizes profit. But once you stop you don't have a choice. Drive me to my house. End of discussion.

So I was inconvenienced and lost 20 minutes of sleep due to some cabbies' lawlessness. But I have a friend who was MAJORLY inconvenienced by a DC cabbie. She was drinking at DC9, a bar near the 9:30 Club. She took a cab to get to her place in Forest Hills. Instead she ended up by the Twinbrook Metro stop so her cabbie could pick someone else up. She only got home after breaking into tears. So, DC cabbies...when they're not ignoring the likes of me, they're abducting my friends. That's some creepy shit for a girl who happens to be by herself. Can you imagine getting into a cab and then having the driver take you to fucking Twinbrook? DC cab drivers shouldn't be so damned rapey.

I know we could have made a bigger deal over this and we should have taken down their cab numbers to file reports with the Taxi Commission and blah, blah, blah. But it was late. All I wanted was to fall asleep. It's not like I carry a pen and pad on me in case a cab driver decides to be a douchebag. But after my experience early Saturday morning, that might not be such a bad idea.

By the way, when I finally got a cab, my driver was very nice. And I think he undercharged me. Awesome. Was it worth the 20 minute wait? No.