You can do nothing without taxi
Imagine living in a world without taxis. Imagine city streets filled with regular traffic ,all those cars and buses, trams and bicycles but not a single roof sign, not even a blurry shadow of a taxi or a cab subconsciously pacing your vision span peripheries, creeping up on you, stalking, following you when you turn the corner like a stray dog hoping to get a speck of your attention.
Just try to think of a world where all your transport options are limited to the public transport – buses, trams, trains, boats, you name it – but no taxis, not even rickshaws. Every day the same – doomed to travel those impossibly packed buses or trams with your face flat on the steamy window or your nose rubbing against random strangers’ sweaty t-shirt or with your feet unmercifully trampled by those who desperately rush to the exit or hurled recklessly from one corner of the bus to the other every time it takes a turn with no chance for relief whatsoever. No comforting thoughts, not even hope for better days where you simply put up your hand, wave it in the air and few moments later jump into the taxi, sprawl your tired body over soft leather seats enjoying casual conversation with round bellied, going bald , middle-aged driver or just quietly watching the world go by silently behind the window.
No, in the world without taxis those things simply don’t exist. There’s no “Ok I’m going to treat myself today, I’m taking taxi back home”…but it goes even further, much further than that. Taxis’ non-existence determine more than you think!
Jus give it a minute and ponder awhile!
How about the most famous taxi frase ever: “Follow that car!” – it just doesn’t make sense anymore – instead you’re left with “Drop me at the next bus stop!” which you could yell frantically to the bus driver after jumping into the bus looking flustered and giving him mad looks.
And what about New York? Imagine it without its yellow cabs! Can you actually do that? Can you picture situation where you walk down Broadway or 5th Avenue or any Manhattan street, put your hand up, yell: Taxi! – and nothing happens…only constant stream of vehicles passing you by with indifference, derision and disgust, drivers smirk at you thinking you might be actually retarded.
But is it possible to envisage any place in the world without taxi business?
Try to think about Calcutta without its unceasing flow of yellow taxis flooding the streets, without the taxi drivers’ dazzling white smiles. Think of Buenos Aires without its black, yellow-roofed cabs or London without black cabs – those places simply wouldn’t be the same.
How about cinematography? Iconic Taxi Driver with Robert De Niro? Forget about it! Jim Jarmusch elegiac Night On Earth – no, this would never have a chance to happen!
Also music industry would suffer some losses even if it was only Vanessa Paradis Joe Le Taxi.
In general world would not be the same place were there no taxis. I would probably not be writing this text as I would be working somewhere else – likely somewhere better paid.
