"Getting There" 12/1/07

I'm at my breaking point.  My overall life conditions are intolerable. Here's just one more example of why it's monumental to even get out of bed and go anywhere at all! (besides the health challenges.)

Saturday, when I was done at Towson Public Library it was just after dark. Like I may have mentioned before I found out that the taxi company that I've had the most success with does not accept my Taxi Card!

Everytime I've ever called "Jack's" taxi (the most "logical" one to call in my region) I get dispatchers with the intelligence of a slug. Here is an account of how things went Sat. night. With the extreme cold and the idiocy of the people that work for Jack's , I had to select a place that would be easy to find. Typically when you call dispatch, you have to tell the dispatcher at least 10 times where you are.

I choose to wait directly across the street from the library at cafe spice so I can easily be located.

Here goes:

I call Jack's from my cell phone which costs about .40 a minute. I'm put on hold for 10 minutes. My phone dies. I have to go into Cafe Spice, pay the clerk .50 and ask her if she'll call me a cab. They put her on hold for 20 minutes!   Finally, someone answers.

"Jack's Taxi"

E-"HI, I need a cab, I'm at 321 york, right across the street from the library"

D (dispatch) "Where?"

"321 York, cafe spice, right across the street from the library"

D- "I don't know where that is"

E-For the 5th time, I'm right across the street from the library how hard can that be?"

D-"What's your phone #"

E-"I don't have a phone!"


(With dispatchers like this you're left feeling that there is a pretty slim chance anyone will come and get you at all!)


In a 40 minute period, i watch 4 cabbies just drive right past me! I stop each one and ask them if they are here for me. "No, I'm not."

E-" But it's freezing and I need to get home, can't you take me? You're here already!"

"We're not allowed maam. You'll have to go with which ever specific driver they dispatch."

" "WEll, can't you call dispatch and tell them that you're here and you are going to take me?"

"We're not allowed maam. There is a specific #..............."

By the time the 3rd driver turned me down I called him a few choice words, and he demanded that I apologize. I refused.

By the time the 4th driver came, I had to "pretend" that I had not already called a cab (All four cabs were with Jack's) or he would have never taken me! I told the driver that the first 3 cabs wouldn't take me. He said "you should have CALLED  for a cab!"

After he dropped me off at home, and after I paid him, ONLY THEN, could I tell him that I HAD called dispatch already.

So, to travel 2 miles, it took me one hour, unbelievable stress and about 12 dollars!

So if you just had this one life obstacle in Baltimore, the lack of a private auto, you can see that your quality of life is shit.

Well, 12.5 years of public transit in Indiana and MD, (off and on) and I'm going to try to move to Berkeley. It's a huge risk with so little money. But this is no kind of life!