Highway Robbery

On Friday night, Ed, his mother, and I were standing on a busy corner near Grand Central Station trying to flag a cab. We'd been trying for ten minutes. I was on one side of the street and Ed and his mom were on the other, but all of the cabs that went by were either gypsy cabs (illegal), off duty, or occupied. We had dinner reservations in 10 minutes, and the subway was not an option. Finally, Ed's mom gave up on the yellow cabs and flagged down one of the pedicabs that was pedaling by. A minute or two later we were squashed in the seat behind a friendly cyclist, on our way at last.

It was sort of fun, really, if a bit cramped and bumpy. It was a relief to be moving at last, and our driver turned over his shoulder to chat and joke with us at red lights. We sympathized with him on the uphill sections and cheered on the downhills. We pulled up in front of our restaurant after about ten minutes and piled out, happy to have arrived in a somewhat timely manner.

This is where things got ugly.

Ed had either read the sign on the side of the cab or had heard somewhere that the rate was a steep $10 per person, plus $1 per block. A cab would have been cheap, in comparison, but since there were none to be had and this guy had gotten us to our destination, Ed assembled the wad of bills stoically.

"It's a million dollars," the guy said, jovially.

"This is a million dollars," Ed replied in kind, handing him the money with a smile.

Our driver's face instantly turned stony. "You know how much you owe me, right?" he asked, suddenly seeming almost threatening. He pulled the sign off the side of the cab to wave in Ed's face, and we saw that Ed's rate was correct, but that we would be charged per person. So what would have been a pretty expensive ride anyway was in fact going to run us about $125. Seriously.

There was no way out of it; Ed's mom took the blame because it was her idea, and Ed took the blame because he hadn't checked the rate more carefully. Our driver took off with his exorbitant fee, and we went into the restaurant poorer and wiser. I learned after a few minutes of online research that this kind of thing happens all over the city with pedicabs. Apparently, drivers are allowed to charge whatever they want as long as the rate is posted, but they downplay the fact that they're going to charge per person until it's time to pony up the fare at the end. So be warned, fair readers.

In other news, I will be quitting my job as a learning specialist to become a pedicab driver.