OPINION

Defending the taxi?

There appears to be a kind of discrimination against taxis and taxi drivers. The «racial» supremacy of cars and their owners makes them feel they are alone. And their bigotry is not restricted to taxi drivers, but also applies to all other drivers and, especially, to pedestrians whose rights have all but disappeared in this city. Not even the sidewalks or pedestrian crossings belong to them anymore. Many motorists say taxi drivers deserve to be discriminated against due to their unacceptable behavior. And certainly the attitude of taxi drivers can often be a problem. But aren’t other drivers equally prone to such misbehavior? A type of irrational social arrogance often causes the motorist to regard others as a mere barrier to one’s driving aspirations, to lose his temper, flout traffic regulations, frequently gesticulate in the rudest way possible and – even more frequently – seek to reaffirm one’s masculinity just as crudely. Even female drivers, probably in self-defense, aspire to acquire this masculine approach to driving and so they will often swear and gesticulate too. This is not an attempt to justify taxi drivers, who are obliged to behave themselves as they drive for a living. In any case, because public transport is so problematic in this monstrous city, taxis have become a type of public transport themselves – often an emergency service…

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