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  1. I have also had this happen fairly regularly. The last time it was when I was heavily pregnant, desperate to get home, standing on Park Avenue and 3 cabs in a row refused to take me to Brooklyn. Literally left me standing there crying on the street. Finally the one guy who did take me bitched about having to go to Brooklyn the entire ride. Right there I vowed to always get a driver # and make a complaint every single freaking time any driver refused to take me to Brooklyn. And I won’t care what happens to them because none of those drivers exhibited any regret or a slight glimmer of sympathy for me. It was really disturbing to see such a glaring lack of any willingness to serve and be helpful to the public. You know, what the job is. Here’s a thought – don’t take any kind of service job if you don’t care about people.

  2. I still have this happen to me about once every 3 or 4 months. I’ve lived in Brooklyn since the so-called bad old days, so I know to get in, sit down, and then give the destination. I know to say that I am going to write down their medallion number. But still, if the driver gets really aggressive, I will get out.

    I’ve had it happen in all kinds of weather I’ve had them give all manner of lame excuses. I even had one cab driver pretend that he didn’t know where the Brooklyn Bridge was.

    My other pet peeve is drivers who get aggressive if you suggest an alternative route. I do drive in the city and I do know how to get to my house the fastest way from most places. The advent of the GPS has made this worse – the GPS is not always right. I recently took the most ridiculous route from Park Slope to JFK following the drivers’ GPS – it took twice as long. I was not happy, but the GPS took us so far out of the way that I couldn’t tell him how to get out of wherever we were without a map.

    Honestly, unless it is really late or I am sick, I prefer the subway.

  3. During a late night snowstorm while I was sitting in my bus waiting for my group to come out of a club I was watching this little group of teenage girls hail a cab and after the third cab pulled up then left I got curious and asked them what was going on. They said the cabbie would ask where they were going then take off when they said Brooklyn. I told them to keep a cell phone open then tell the cabbie that they were going only a few blocks away because of the snow but after they got in then tell him where they really wanted to go and if he didn’t take them he should speak louder into the phone so we could get it on tape. After a minute as they drove past the girls waved to me. These were young girls out late at night in a sketchy area and cab after cab refused to take them. The only reason car services exist is because cabbies only want to make the quick money in Manhattan