Sharing the experience of taking a taxi while studying in high school in the United States

All the railings at the taxi stand at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport are painted bright yellow. Even the sign at the taxi stand is also bright yellow, with the word "TAXI" written in black on it. It is said that starting in 1967, the New York City government stipulated that ordinary taxis must be painted bright yellow.

I have played in high schools in the United States, but mostly in Manhattan. To go far away, I usually take the subway. It was almost dark when we arrived at JFK International Airport. Although the receptionist in New York had booked a hotel for me in Flushing, they were unable to pick me up at the airport due to lack of manpower, so they told me on the phone to take a taxi to the hotel. .

The taxi waiting line at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport was not long, only three or five people, so my wife and I quickly got into a taxi.

This time I got into a taxi and the driver looked like an Indian. Many taxi drivers in New York are not New York natives, but foreign immigrants, with the largest number of drivers from Bangladesh. I often hear from my friends in the United States how taxi drivers in New York rip off customers. This time, the driver I met was very nice. When he saw my hotel address, he said, "I know." About 20 minutes later, the taxi stopped in front of the hotel. He got out of the car, politely helped me get my suitcase, and then took the fare sheet from the meter. It was 29 US dollars including tip. It should be said that the fare was about the same.

A friend in New York told me that the number of taxis in New York has been 12,187 from 1937 to the present! That was in order to curb the increase in road congestion due to too many taxis in New York, and limited the number of taxis to the 12,187 taxis at that time. No more additions will be made outside. This law continues to this day. The income of New York taxi drivers is considered to be below the middle level among working-class people. Due to the crowded traffic in New York and the hard work of taxi drivers, locals are not willing to do this job, so a large number of foreign immigrants have joined this team.

After I gave a lecture in New York, I had to rush from Flushing to a hotel in Newark. Considering that the distance was quite long, my wife and I first took the No. 7 subway to Times Square in Manhattan, and then took a taxi from there to Newark.

I waved in Times Square and a taxi stopped. The driver, who looked like a Middle Easterner, looked at the address in Newark, said he was not familiar with the place, and left. So, I waved again, and another taxi stopped in front of me. As soon as the black driver looked at the address, he said: "Oh, it's in Chinatown in Newark, I know!" But when he got to the center of Newark, he asked the gas station man for directions, and the answer he got was Newark. There is no Chinatown in the city! At this moment, I understood that this driver was not familiar with Newark. When I got on the bus, I saw that I was Chinese and guessed that the hotel was in Chinatown. Originally, GPS (satellite positioning system) has become very common in the United States. It is easy to find the five-star Sheraton hotel by checking the GPS. However, this taxi did not have a GPS installed! The driver was "roaming" in Newark. I gave him the hotel phone number and the receptionist told him how to get there, but he was still "roaming". It wasn't until I took out my cell phone and planned to dial the hotel's number that he knew I saw something fishy and quickly said: "I'm sorry, you don't have to call." ?He turned the taxi around, left Newark, got on the highway, and headed straight for Newark Airport. Ten minutes later, we successfully arrived at a tall and large hotel with big red letters on the building----?Shera-ton?! It turns out that this hotel is next to Newark Airport and not in the center of Newark at all. .

When I got off the bus, the driver handed me the bill taken from the meter, which was US$95! Plus a tip of US$15, the total was US$110. I told him I couldn't pay that price. He seemed to know that he was in the wrong. After checking a taxi odometer, he told me that I could pay $70 and tip would be waived.

The third time I took a taxi in New York was from Flushing to LaGuardi Airport.

The hotel receptionist called a taxi for me, and the driver was a Chinese. He told me that the flat price from there to LaGuardi Airport was US$15 (including tip). It only took about ten minutes for him to take my wife and me to the ATA Airlines departure lounge at LaGuardi Airport, from where we flew to Chicago smoothly.