Sunday, March 22, 2009

Now Heed This

Advice to all you night people who drive in to the city to get smashed: 

You're getting smashed!! stop it!! The instant the weather got warm, I've seen accidents everywhere; Times Square, Midtown, and all over the highways. But I must be real with you, it isn't really the drinking, it is a state of mind that many people have even when they're totally sober, they think they are the masters of the universe, or they for one reason or other are not paying enough attention to the dips in the road and merging traffic. The next that happens is their car looses a bumper or flips over completely. Cars of all shapes and sizes flip, flipping is an equal opportunity action. The best chances you have of not getting in an accident is when you become familiar with the area you are driving.

I felt goose-bumps today as I passed a horrific flipped vehicle on the Van Wyck. All the lanes were stopped behind this car, no emergency vehicles were there yet. I'm not a praying man, but shivers went through my spine I thought to pull over and call the police, but I figured the 10 plus cars stopped behind it probably already called. If I was 20 minutes later coming to JFK I would've been there. Anybody could carry such misfortune to be tangled in  such a tragedy.

To avoid an accident, we must watch for aggressive drivers, those who dart between lanes and drive at 20 miles per hour or more, beyond the limit. Anyone who does more than 10 M.P.H. higher than the rest of traffic, may soon find themselves being tended to by the emergency services. Be aware of a driver who drives abnormally and has an out of state license plate, these are signs that they are both overconfident and unfamiliar. The combination of being both unfamiliar and overconfident make for a dangerous cocktail. 

TO AVOID DANGEROUS DRIVERS- stay back, far back, because when they loose control you don't want to be entangled with them.

I guess that's really all I have to say. My rides have been good people, very good actually, they've been tipping me as much as 10 dollars sometimes. However, the demand for taxicabs has been dwindling. I achieved my lowest ride number in a long while at only 21 rides, usually I get 25, and if it's really busy I get 30. The demand was so low, that I actually waited at LaGuardia both yesterday and today, so I'm managing to save a few more bucks on gasoline. Again I got a record low of 9.8 gallons yesterday, while I usually use 13.

Oh, hey, another symptom of the new season: movie production, and random road construction. They seem to take no account for how blocking off certain lanes and streets will discombobulate the entire traffic routine of broad sections of the city. The Waldorff Astoria has fake police cars and motorcycles parked in front, and 51st street is not only cluttered with the usual double-decker tour buses, but we have to wind our way through an over abundance of orange cones. These dang cones stimulate our congestion to madness!! A freakin' tour bus went through the yellow light and stoped in the middle of Lexington Avenue, so I pulled along side it since he was already blocking traffic, but the freakin' cones were blocking that little space I needed to clear the intersection. What was the purpose for these cones? Nothing! 

And the street fairs are coming back, today look for one on Christopher street between Waverly (east of 7th Ave) and 7th Avenue. This will cause bottling of traffic on Grove Street. Traffic looking to go west on Christopher will be forced south single file on Grove to 7th Avenue where they will then all have to proceed to the next westward street, Barrow Street. The passengers will be taken for a Z shaped route, instead of the usual L, costing them money, causing everyone anger, and causing the driver both time and money. 

Well, have a safe productive day, find yourself a good place to wait for a good passenger while the going is slow. I'm on break right now, but I better get back on the streets, since it's after 10 in the morning. I'm sure the pace will pick-up, how late can a New Yorker sleep?



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