OPEN DOOR, SHUT MOUTH? Commuters sharing a cab might find that checking their cellphones is a good way to avoid conversation. If not, a few choice lines could help.
I slid over toward the man in the gray suit, making sure not to look him in the eye. Between us lay only a few inches of cushion and an awkward silence. “I’ve never done this before,” I said, though it wasn’t entirely true. “I’d feel less awkward if — could I ask your name?”
He said it was Philip. He said he worked in the apparel industry. Lies, for all I know, and so what if they were?
We were exploring one of New York’s last unfamiliar social configurations, making it up as we went. We were sharing a cab.
It was the second day of the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s new program to make cabs a slightly more public form of transportation. The rule is, at one of three spots in Manhattan, from 6 to 10 a.m., people can pile in for a group ride to Grand Central, for $3 or $4 a head.
No one had to articulate the other rule, which is: shut up. If anyone tries to speak, politely ignore her.
In its combination of physical proximity and psychic distance, the taxi-sharing experiment sounded like a microcosm of New York. Like hearing your neighbor’s intimate moments through the bedroom wall, but not acknowledging him when you see him by the mailboxes. Or standing closer to a sweaty ogre on the subway than you ever would to your best friend, all the while willing your mind to someplace very far away. Up close and impersonal: that’s the way we seem to like it.
Shared taxis offer all that, crammed into 100 cubic feet of space with the meter running. Could New Yorkers maintain their active disregard under that kind of pressure? The start of the ride-sharing program seemed a psychology dissertation in the making, and I had my opening lines all ready to go.
The only problem was: there were no test subjects. On the program’s first two days, the only people lining up at the three pickup points were other journalists. Drivers did not slow as they passed by. So I approached people who were hailing their own cabs, pretended to be heading in the same direction and offered to share. After getting rejected for the 12th or 13th time, I started offering to pay the whole fare — not a cab share, a cab gift. That only creeped people out more. Eventually I was riding around in the back seat of my own taxi with the window open, yelling, “Come on, get in!” to anyone with a hand in the air.
No, that doesn’t work.
Begging Whole Foods shoppers in Union Square to let me ferry them and their bags home, I saw two cops in matching chartreuse rain slickers chuckling at my desperation. “Everyone’s suspicious of something free,” I whined. “If I were charging a lot of money for it, there’d be a long line.”
“Welcome to New York,” one said.
Mike, a film student at Hunter College, leaned into the window to inquire: Did I really mean it? He had to go to Old Navy in SoHo to exchange a gift from his mother. Mike spent the whole trip telling me what a nice surprise it was to share a cab. “For someone to say, ‘Can I help you, can I make things easier for you?’ ” In New York, he sputtered, “It’s just — it’s just not done.” Neither is being so unguarded with a stranger. Or so I thought.
On the Upper East Side I found Kirsten, a recent college graduate working in finance. With a tight blond ponytail, pearl earrings and a tailored trench coat, she seemed too restrained to talk about anything other than the weather. But as we headed to her Midtown office, she confessed to feeling as if she had arrived in finance just as the party was ending. Then she told me that the regulatory proposals would consolidate too much power in Washington.
Four minutes into the ride and we had already done money and politics, things people supposedly don’t discuss with strangers. So I asked if she was a person of faith, and bingo, we hit the trifecta, all before the meter even registered $5.
A second Mike, who works in television and wore a jaunty Tyrolean cap, saw nothing odd about cab sharing. “New Yorkers, of all people, are used to rubbing up against each other,” he noted. Mike said he took out-of-town friends on the subway just to see this in action. But I doubt he tells his A-train seat mates that he is on his way to his therapist’s office, which is on the same block as his wife’s therapist’s office and right next to their couples therapist. Ever gotten that much information between subway stops? Only from people trying to sell salvation or Street News.
Even Philip, the apparel executive I picked up at Grand Central, had a confession. After acknowledging how discount retailers have hurt his industry, he told me that he had stopped shopping at department stores too. And when he does go, he buys from the sale rack.
Why were New Yorkers so reluctant to share a cab yet so willing to share everything else? And if the group-ride program picks up speed, how soon might sharing give way to oversharing? Then the challenge will be how to silence the chatter. Fiddling with a BlackBerry would work, sure. But I’ve still got some unused opening lines, yours for the taking: “Anyone know a gynecologist near Penn Station?” “Boy, the [ethnic group X] sure do get a lot of mileage out of that [historical tragedy Y], don’t they?” “Sorry to bug you, but do you know anything about rashes?” They’ll get the message.
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
CreditCardCabbie 03.07.10 at 8:15 pm
Imagine sharing a cab with strangers on the rainy day in the L, or Straight Partioned Altima or any Prius Hybrid cabs …, Trere is any space for my wet umbrella or back pack? If the “sharing” idea would not work, the city officials may add more busses tagged with medallions, then cabbies would not stop for shared fares! To have more legroom in the cab, they should remove the advertising cab-TV and start to install it to a roomier NYC busses, and that will help the MTA!!!
Charles 03.08.10 at 1:17 am
To Brooklyn Mark. How does the “reserve a car” work? I did not go through the routine because obviously I am not going to reserve a car. But if someone does reserve a car, how does it get dispatched and to who, which cab?
Charles 03.08.10 at 1:19 am
To Brooklyn Mark. I’ve been exploring the website, does the fare estimator include the 50 cent MTA tax?
Charles 03.08.10 at 1:22 am
To credit card cabbie. More buses tagged with medallions!! Please explain.
Charles 03.08.10 at 8:43 pm
To Cootie riders. I love to accept your cootie card. Those riders with cootie cards I call cooties. I love them. I wish you would hold up your cootie card as I am getting ready to pass you so I will be able to jam my brakes on in time to pick you up.
Charles 03.08.10 at 8:45 pm
To Dootie riders. I love to accept your dootie card (debit card). Those riders with dootie cards I call dooties. I love them. I wish you wave your dootie card at me as I am getting ready to pass you so I will be able to jam my brakes on in time to pick you up.
Police_are_your_friend 03.10.10 at 11:25 am
I thought the TLC listened too the Public when they started this share cab program.
RadioFreeTaxi 06.02.10 at 8:59 pm
WOW!
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http://www.automotto.org/entry/unicab-may-be-nyc-s-taxi-of-tomorrow/
Deloitte speaks 06.03.10 at 2:57 am
To RadioFree. Cabbies want nice snazz & jazz cab for same daily price. What about the 8700 onesy twosy driver owners? Snazz & jazz cost, as already known, cannot fit into their economic, financial model. 2 or 3 hot-shot owners claiming 2500 medallion ownership, grabbing an extra $400,000 a year in bribes/tips each garage comes to millions of dollars to help them support fancy cabs (cabbie pays). And another 2500 medallions claimed by various smaller fleet garages, can they afford this snazz & jazz as well? It is a given, cabbies always want more for the lease price, and anything less than perfection, they are pointing out. This is only natural. But what about the 8700 onesy twosy owners working night and day to make something, to make an investment, the more snazz & jazz, the more they have to sell out to those bigs. The question is, does the NYC cab business want to support the HARD & GOOD work of these 8700 medallions who have devoted years and years to taking the ridership from point A to point B in plain, clean, safe cabs that do the trick? Remember, the “driver owners” [the onesy twosy's] are close to their few cabs and verify their good condition and verify their safe drivers. Embellishing NYC cab vehicles over what is needed from point A to point B slowly but surely puts the onesy twosies out of business, one by one. It is not healthy for the NYC cab business. In fact, all this glamour and horn-tooting only serves the “photo-ops and speak-shots” of the two politicians, Mayor Bloomberg and Commish Yassky. Riders are not served, although used as excuses. The Daus / Bloomberg reign destroyed an existing, thriving, safe NYC cab business. And that is why Daus was appointed, to do exactly that. When done, he moved on. As Yassky will move on when he is DONE with more destruction. Once all the 13,400 medallions are in the hands of the hot shots, with cabbie pay less and less, and more circus responsibilities, a cabbie will just be a rookie, unsafe necessity to pay the daily rent to the hot-shots, to the tune of billions of dollars. Safety of drivers, riders, and pedestrians in this cyclone scheme of corruption, means absolutely NOTHING to TLC.
Ned 06.04.10 at 5:14 pm
To RadioFree. A private driver said the other day he was going to replace his current cab, a FCV, with a FCV. He says he thinks they will make them up to 2012. Is that right? If they are going to do that, what about Ford makes the FCV in a nice 6 cylindar, which will cut emissions by 1/4, and gas cost for t he cabbie. They should have a 6 cyl version; maybe they do and I don’t know it. I also thought they were going to stop production 2010. What’s the real scoop?
RadioFreeTaxi 07.07.10 at 7:59 pm
“riders would pay less, cabbies would earn more, road congestion would decrease.” >>> The cab-sharing!
http://nymag.com/guides/everything/collectivism/67017/