Taxi trust

Those who have to take a taxi to work every morning will understand me.

Let me start by saying that I have one very serious problem - I am not punctual. I'm late everywhere and almost always. And with my job and the importance of the events I have to attend, this is extremely inappropriate. This is why I use taxis and not public transport (if I lived in Moscow, it would be exactly the opposite - the metro there saves the day. In the provinces, alas, there are only minibuses, and they are not so fast). So here it is. At my current place of work, punctuality is perhaps the most important condition. That is, you cannot be late. Never. Not by any means. For no reason. And if you enter the building at 9:01, you write an explanation why this happened. Such strict laws in the legislature.

Because of this, my mornings are never good. Because every morning is a lottery. I call a taxi at 8:15. It arrives one morning after 5 minutes, the next - after 24, the third - after 40. I have not yet been able to track the cyclical nature of taxi delays, and there is probably no cycle. As the drivers explain it, there are few cars in the morning, because everyone usually goes out to work at 10-11 o’clock.

And this is my first question: why has no one decided to organize the work of taxi services at such a level so that there are enough drivers in the morning during rush hour?

The second problem is traffic jams. No matter how funny it may sound, even cities with a population of 300-400 thousand are already beginning to get used to this metropolitan phenomenon. And I am very jealous of European residents who, when paying for a taxi fare, travel, firstly, in a luxury car (in Paris we had the opportunity to drive a 221 Mercedes. There is also a Bentley taxi there, but we never got into one ), and secondly, they are not afraid of traffic jams; there is a dedicated traffic lane for public transport and taxis. It seems that Moscow has already come to this, too.

And third. This is very personal and subjective, but... As KVN people joke, “one taxi driver did not tell the passenger the story of his life and died.”

I want to emphasize that I respect the feelings of other people and even with pleasure, out of duty and at the call of my heart, almost every day I listen to different stories from people close to me and those about whom I write articles. But when in the morning I, as usual, sleep-deprived and late for work, get into a taxi, it is extremely difficult for me not only to understand the story, but even to simply smile. And so I asked myself: why are drivers interested in sharing their secrets with random passengers? And those who are not giving me a ride for the first time are also interested in what kind of family/friendship connections I have with the people whom they had the opportunity to drive to my home. But this is not the worst thing.

Recently I got into a taxi where the driver was a young man I didn’t know (I had never met before). He was gloomy and even seemed sad. But turning back and looking at me, he became strangely excited. At the second traffic light, he said that I was almost a clone of his first love. On the third - that he missed her terribly, had not seen her for 15 years, because... he was sitting. Yes, in prison.

- Why were you imprisoned? — I tried to ask almost indifferently.

“I won’t talk, otherwise you’ll become afraid of me,” he said and chuckled somehow. Then, at every opportunity, he turned around and glared at me with his cruel (as it seemed to me even then... or maybe it didn’t seem) gaze. When we got to work, I knew everything about her, right down to her foot size. And he desperately tried to tell the story of their love and describe in more detail the palette of his feelings, without unlocking the door for me (what kind of stupid door locking system is this, and who managed to install it on the Volga?!). I, as you can probably imagine, showed intense interest and sympathy. And I was nervous.

I finally entered the building at 9:03. I don’t know what to write in the explanatory note. )))