Locked doors, 911 and a lugie

I got this email from a friend this morning:

"Had a driver just Friday who locked me, Asa & Melissa in the limo because I wanted to be dropped off first & he wanted extra money than agreed upon. We had to call 911 to get him to let us out & he spat on Melissa. Shoo! Scary!"

Can't wait to get more details and let you guys know what really went down...

Spiderman and cabs

So I was re-watching Spiderman 2 (guilty pleasure), and if you took a drink of beer every time you spotted a yellow cab in this flick, you'd be wasted within 30 minutes. Or I would be, but I'm a lightweight.

Basically, you see a yellow cab every 2 minutes. It's like the director said, "hey, this movie is set in New York! I want yellow cabs everywhere! On the streets! In the background! Give me more yellow!"

When the bad guy with the octopus arms robs a bank? Right outside sits two cabs, one of which gets mangled by a flying superhero.

Octopus arms kidnaps Aunt May and hulls her up the face of a skyscraper? The scene below is a street crawling with yellow cabs.

I could go on, but I won't. And as I couldn't find a pic of Spidey with a yellow cab, you'll have to deal with the videogame shot above. But for those of you thirsting for the real webbed wonder, I also included a photo of Spidey and a subway. Which is like a yellow cab. But longer and silver. And it only costs $2.50/ride. And it's crowded. But hey, both subways and cabs can smell bad. So there.

Can Someone Please Help Our Limo Drivers?? (Another Murder)

Three New York livery drivers have been killed in two weeks, which is awful. I don't specifics of the murders, but I do know something about how money/lack thereof works. (I used to work as a financial reporter, but really, you don't need those skills to know the following.)

1. Unemployment is up, which means there are more people desperate for money, or just desperate.

2. Limo drivers carry wads of cash.

3. Limo drivers have fewer customers, so to keep the dough rolling in, they're likely taking more risks -- ie, picking up street hails. (Livery drivers I interviewed for my book refused to pick up street hails. If you don't know where your passengers came from or where they're going, and don't have a camera in your car, your passengers is much harder to trace.)

4. Which tells me that more drivers need to be educated about the potential dangers in picking up street hails, and that more livery cab companies need to install cameras and/or other safety features in their cars.

5. But once again, in a down economy, will the cab companies take the extra money and time to do this? Let's hope.

6. Of course, another potential solution is to catch the criminals before they hit. According to NY1, drivers are signing up for Operation Safe Cab, where limos sporting special stickers can be pulled over and have suspicious passengers searched.

Above is a pic of a gun, a weapon that I dislike because it's used to hunt people. And I'm against hunting people.

News: Brox livery driver killed

It's something I hoped to never blog about, but the news is important. Earlier today, a gunman killed a Bronx livery driver in an apparent attempted robbery.

Many people don't realize this, but taxi and limo drivers are terrified of passengers robbing them. These drivers are inherently vulnerable, as they carry wads of cash and have their back to their passengers.

According to the Newsday article, Amadou Ndiaye, a 46-year-old immigrant from Senegal, was shot in the chest. Because the poor man was unlicensed, he didn't have the protection licensed drivers have -- a camera in the car for livery drivers, or a partition for taxi drivers. He also picked up street fairs, something the limo drivers I spoke with refuse to do. It's too dangerous, they say. Instead, they pick up radio hails, as their dispatcher has the phone number and address of the potential passenger. The traceability makes everyone safer.

The gunman hasn't yet been caught, according to Newsday.