Where Is All The Business Hiding?

The last two weekends have been hellish in terms of there being very little business, especially the kind of demand sustaining unlimited numbers of new drivers.  Weekends like the past two are what make the Cooper & Mundy demand study so dangerous for those who are actually trying to make a living picking up passengers.  Even a taxi magician like myself have found the top hat empty, failing to have that happy rabbit leap out, telling me, "Let's go to Tacoma!"

Winters can be slow but folks  have to at least pay their lease and gasoline.  The only salvation have been all the call-offs, Yellow's "extra board" filled with waiting cabs. My friend Ali who shares 478 with me is now in Ethiopia for two months.  If a third of the fleet hadn't been idle this past Sunday I don't know what would have happened because all the passengers  appear to be somewhere hibernating in a cave sipping hot chocolate and egg nog.  Good for them!  I too am ready to join them in their fur-lined sanctuaries, napping away the chilly hours.

If you can believe it, my real Sunday didn't begin until about midnight with my torture ending just before 5:00 AM Monday after dropping off a $48.00 fare including tip at Sea-Tac.  Two late quasi-ambulance runs also helped, one a young man from Rainier Valley who was progressively getting sicker as we neared Harborview; and a much older man living way up north in Shoreline who fell down upon leaving his house.  I leaped out and and helped him up the sidewalk to the cab.  He was extremely short of breath and might have been in cardiac arrest.  I flew to Northwest Hospital over the dangerously frosty streets, very concerned he would expire before I got him there.  Heaven help us all!

And as I keep saying, the City Council is inviting the uninitiated and the unsuspecting to an insane environment I know all too well.  Why would they do that?  Maybe they don't quite understand what they are saying, as I keep hinting when pertaining to all things taxis.  Upon other subjects I have no idea, leaving it to the voters to decide.  All I know is that we DO NOT require what they are proposing!  When will everyone realize Seattle IS NOT a major or large metropolitan area?  Since marijuana is about to be legal I know what they are smoking!  Distortion should not manifest into working reality.  That should be obvious but in Seattle perhaps not, calling itself something it clearly isn't.  Good grief!