Cab Companies
I’m a Big Sister with the Big Brothers Big Sisters program and once a week, I visit a nearby elementary school to play games with my “little brother”. The school is about a mile from my home and normally I would hop on my bicycle and coast on over. Last week I had knee surgery, which throws a lot of complication into my normally simple travel experiences. Since my husband and friends are all at work, I decided to take a cab.
There has been some bad press recently regarding short cab rides. This Getting There column addresses the legality (or is that illegality?) of taxi drivers refusing a fare due to short distances. Add to the short trip my awkwardness with crutches and a brace that won’t allow me to bend my leg at all and I thought I was a perfect excuse for a cab driver to refuse to take me.
I checked Google for local cab companies and read the reviews. I ended up selecting Yellow Cab due to the good customer service reviews. I called dispatch and a cab showed up within 4 minutes. The driver was extremely accommodating and told me that even though it was a short ride, he was happy to help me out when it was obvious that I wouldn’t make it on my own. When it was time to come back home, I called Yellow Cab again. A cab arrived within moments and this cab driver was also extremely accommodating, going as far as to adjust the front passenger seat so I could fit behind it, as well as jumping out to hand me my crutches when we arrived. The entire experience exceeded all of my expectations and I will readily use a cab next week when I visit my “little brother” again.
I know that there are other cab companies out there and my experiences with cabs is pretty limited. I see the negative stories about taxi drivers/companies in the news and it leads me to believe that perhaps some people avoid cabs based on that alone. Tell me about your experiences using cabs in Seattle. Overall have they been good? Bad? Unmemorable?
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I take lots and lots of cabs, enough that cab drivers frequently remember me, because I don’t drive and I stay out late, and I’ve only had one really bad experience. Mostly they’re just fine rides, and the driver is on the phone the whole time, and that’s no big deal. But there are some really great cab drivers in this town, and taking rides with them is a treat.
I think that people (myself definitely included) are way more likely to complain when they have a bad experience than to commend when they have a good one, which is a shame.
True that.