London, England
Kyoto, Japan
Tafo, Ghana
Baku, Azerbaijan
Berlin, Germany
St. Petersburg, Russia
Calcutta, India
Paris, France
Manila, Philippines
Trinidad
Taxicabs Around the World – Part Two
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Tag Archives: cabs
A fake $100 bill, a street fight, pupusas and other unanswered questions…
My column this week for the S.F. Examiner is a somewhat confusing story about an altercation between a cab driver and a pupuseria worker, involving a possible fake $100 bill…
I don’t hear the details over the two-way radio as it unfolds, but when I come upon the aftermath at 16th and Valencia, I see two SFPD squad cars have National 2977 surrounded. On the sidewalk, cops mingle with the crowd of Saturday night revelers, the mariachis and a few competing hot dog vendors.
I look for the familiar face of the driver, but an arm in the air distracts me.
Later, in the Mighty cabstand, Juneaux tells me all he knows: The driver of 2977 was attacked by his passengers and taken to the emergency room.
While I’m cashing out at the end of my shift, Jesse only has a little more information. The driver, Noguchi, was taken to SF General, and they’re towing the cab back to the yard.
Outside the office, the weekly recitation of the waybill is underway, with Noguchi’s fate the center of attention. Colin, Juneaux, Late Night Larry, Marty and I stand around asking questions: Why doesn’t somebody just go pick up the cab? Cause the driver has the key. Oh. Has anyone gone to the hospital to check on the driver? Did the police file a report? Are we going to pull the chip from the camera?
After a while, the tow truck arrives with 2977 on the hook. Then Noguchi shows up, bedraggled with a hospital bracelet still around his wrist.
We immediately demand answers.
“Hold up,” he says, still visibly shaken. “It’s a long story. Somebody, please, I need a cigarette.”
Colin hands him an American Spirit, and we yield the floor …
“I was dropping off a fare at 16th and Guerrero,” Noguchi begins. “There were three people. One was getting out. But the other two were continuing on to Ocean and Plymouth. The guy who’s getting out wants to settle the bill. The other two will pay separate. He hands me a $100 bill. Now I’ve been playing the airport all evening. I only have $20 in change. That won’t help anybody. I go into a bar to ask for change. Sorry. I go into the liquor store. Sorry. I try the pupuseria. They say, only if you buy something. So I order the beef deshilachada.”
At this point, things get somewhat confusing … Noguchi goes outside to give the guy his change. And since he’s now committed to the food he’s ordered, the other two passengers flag down a different cab, which happens to also be a National.
On his way back inside the pupuseria, the cashier confronts him.
“You gave me a fake $100 bill!”
Realizing that the people associated with the $100 bill are in the National cab, Noguchi tries to prevent them from driving away. The pupuseria worker, however, assumes he’s trying to escape and attacks him.
“He just starts hitting you right away?” somebody asks.
“Yes, and I told him, ‘I don’t want to fight.’ I’m just trying to get the people back to sort this all out. You know what I mean? I’m trying to be honest.” He slaps his chest.
The pupuseria guy won’t listen. He just keeps pummeling Noguchi until he’s on the pavement.
“And then he’s kicking me and kicking me! And I’m rolling on the ground.”
“In the middle of 16th Street?”
“Yes! I keep yelling, ‘I don’t want to fight!’ But still, he’s kicking me.” Noguchi’s accent gets stronger as he revisits the adrenaline-fueled confrontation.
“So what did you do?”
“I got up and I grabbed him by the head and … BLAM!” He pantomimes a slam-dunk.
“You smashed him into the ground?”
“I did not want to fight! I was only trying to be honest!”
We continue grilling Noguchi until he finishes another cigarette. Then he gets into 2977 and drives away.
Left to fill in the gaps, we try to jigsaw what few facts we have into a cohesive story …
At some point, the cops obviously showed up and then an ambulance took him to General. But what about the pupuseria worker? What happened to him? And what about the guy who passed the alleged fake $100 bill?
“What if,” Juneaux proposes, “the guy’s bill wasn’t phony at all, and the cashier was just trying to get rid of one he already had?”
As conspiracy theories lead to other wacky possible scenarios, much to Colin’s delight, the sky brightens. Slowly, we break away, leaving the yard and all the unanswered questions behind.
Originally appeared in the S.F. Examiner on May 27, 2016.
[Top photo by Christian Lewis. Joe Strummer in a NY taxicab via the interwebs.]
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One App to Rule Them All: On Centralized Taxi Dispatching
I had a 24 year old kid in my taxi this weekend who asked me the same question I get asked all the fucking time: “Ever thought about driving for Uber or Lyft?”
I always respond the same way, as I try to deflect the question and change the subject: “Don’t own a car.”
Further inquiry usually ends there, although some people know it’s possible to easily acquire a car to drive for Uber and Lyft, as these companies continue to make it incredibly simple for anyone with a pulse and halfway decent background history to drive for hire.
Well, this kid didn’t know about leasing options that Uber provide, thankfully, but he went on to tell me, in his opinion as a resident of Concord, how the San Francisco taxi industry failed and how, if they’d had an app early on, Uber and Lyft wouldn’t have bankrupted the cab companies.
I point out that Cabulous, which became Flywheel, predates UberX, which didn’t launch until Summer 2012. So, yes, taxis had apps even before Uber.
“Think about it…” I say to the guy. “Everyone’s trying to come up with ideas for apps… hailing a cab isn’t that original, especially in a city like San Francisco, where, as any longtime resident can tell you ad nauseam, it was next to impossible to get a cab. So coming up with an app to summon a taxi in San Francisco is kind of a no-brainer, right?”
The argument that taxis have failed to adopt to technology is crap. It was the cab companies who resisted both centralized dispatching and app-based dispatching out of pure greed and lack of foresight.
The drivers themselves, obviously determined to maximize their profits, have been experimenting with apps from the beginning.
Drivers use every ride-hailing app available, to varying degrees of happiness, and will no doubt praise and criticize any others that come down the road.
Drivers who don’t want to use their cab company’s Veriphone credit card processing get Square instead.
Drivers are also so determined to cross color schemes, several hundred us use the GroupMe app to communicate with each other in real time. Throughout our shifts, we post updates on when events are breaking and to let each other know where demand is high, which is similar to Uber’s heat maps or Lyft’s weekly email of upcoming events, except the information in the SF Hackers group is based on actual eyes-on-the-street reports and an actual comprehensive listing of all concerts and events provided by one of the members, who also happens to be a dispatcher.
Undeterred, to prove that taxis are the cause of their own demise, he brings up the price difference between taxis and Uber/Lyft, even though I immediately counter with the fact that when UberX and Lyft both started, they cost more than taxis and have only lowered prices to compete in a race to the bottom. And anyway, in the end, we all know Uber is only interested in logistics.
“But…” he goes on.
Whatever…
The issue is moot.
I guess Cabulous/Flywheel, Taxi Magic, Summon and all the other taxi-hailing apps, which could have provided San Francisco’s much needed centralized dispatch, just weren’t as sexy as the “Uber-iquitous” U symbol everyone has come to love and/or hate.
Anyway, this week’s column for the S.F. Examiner is about centralized dispatching.
Read it here.
Photos by Trevor Johnson.
I Drive S.F. 