What is WRONG with Cab drivers here? (Arlington: taxi, live)

[VTHokieFan]

Elderly Woman Struck by Cab in Ballston Dies | ARLnow.com

He turned right on red where the sign says "do not turn right on red when pedestrians are present." Why do cab drivers drive so carelessly, without any regard to other people on the road? You would think someone whose livelihood is based on driving a cab wouldnt be so careless. Now this man is going to jail for ~10 years and will probably never have a license again, and most likely immigrated to the US for this work. They're all such erratic drivers.

[Bigfoot424]

Unfortunately he will never see those 10 years. While I have no love for cabbies there are plenty of stupid and careless drivers everywhere. Male, female, young and old. It's not just cabbies.

[Darkseid]

What a terrible and tragic story. It is also for that reason that, even while having the right to "walk" signal, I am very careful to still look both ways before crossing the street and watch for cars. That is regardless of whatever city (DC, NYC, LA, Arlington, VA or Arlington, TX)

[dkf747]

I see a large number of bad cab drivers in this area. I think the number is higher than it should be, even if I agree that it is not just cab drivers.

[yamota]

this might seem like a selfish thing to say, but sometimes I feel like a taxicab driver's main goal is to **** me off

[NC211]

They're everywhere, not just here in DC! In Chicago, you'd be lucky if they actually spoke a lick of english. You know how many times I'd have to take out my Garmin from my bag for the cabbie to use to just get me from Ohare to home?

I have noticed here though, the tend to "float" around the lanes more than in Chicago. Maybe it's because Chicago is a tough city, and a ticked off driver would easily get out of his car to beat the snot out of the cabbie more often than say around here.

I'll never forget in 07', NYC for a conference, took a cab from Time Square Marriott down to the meat packing district. Cabbie got into an arguement with another cabbie. We were racing through NYC at nearly 70 mph while these two yelled at eachother through open windows. Don't know what they were saying, other than someone's mom was a dog, and at one point a shoe went flying out the window. I was too stunned to say anything until we got to our destination, which just so happened to have a cop sitting out front. I told the cop and he chased down the cabbie. There were two of us in the car, one had taken video with his iphone as proof. We called it the Sunni / Sheite Showdown in SoHo Town....

[tysonsengineer]

Lets try to avoid the race analogy. The bigger issue is, vehicles are being paid to go from point A to point B. The amount of money to be made is dependent on how fast and how many they can do in 1 day and often that leads to throwing caution to the wind about proper traffic laws. I dont think this is only a cabbie thing, often commuters do the same thing as their rush to work is more important than a residents right to cross a road legally.

I agree with Darkseid, when you cross you gotta realize that its dangerous and you have to take all precautions. That works fine for well abled, but for elderly its tough to cross in the time frame that most drivers would ask of you to avoid incident. Can we all just slow down and remember that 5 more seconds isnt the biggest deal in the world?

[7 VII 7]

Originally Posted by VTHokieFan

Elderly Woman Struck by Cab in Ballston Dies | ARLnow.com

He turned right on red where the sign says "do not turn right on red when pedestrians are present." Why do cab drivers drive so carelessly, without any regard to other people on the road? You would think someone whose livelihood is based on driving a cab wouldnt be so careless. Now this man is going to jail for ~10 years and will probably never have a license again, and most likely immigrated to the US for this work. They're all such erratic drivers.

While I agree with you that this is unfortunate incident. This is not just HERE Have you ever been to NYC, DC, SF, Miami? Come on now, it is not just here. Also have you been to that intersection of Ballston? It is a nightmare. It could have been a regular driver (non-cab) just as easily. People turn red on that light ALL THE TIME EVERY DAY.

[snowdenscold]

I don't know about you guys, but my wife and I have consistently found cabs in the NoVa area to be incredibly slow, very unlike cabs you find in other cities.

Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but we either observe, or get stuck behind, an incredibly slow cab ALL the time.

[dkf747]

Originally Posted by snowdenscold

I don't know about you guys, but my wife and I have consistently found cabs in the NoVa area to be incredibly slow, very unlike cabs you find in other cities.

Maybe it's just confirmation bias, but we either observe, or get stuck behind, an incredibly slow cab ALL the time.

Same here. That's one of the reasons I joined this thread.