Let's all think of the cabs

The world can be a dangerous place, especially when you drive a taxi. Case in point: there have recently been an inordinate number of reports of cabbies getting robbed at knifepoint and at gunpoint. I heard about a story just this morning wherein a cabbie was robbed and assaulted. Perhaps the moon is in a particular phase at the moment...

In response to this disturbing and violent trend, some taxi companies have taken precautionary measures like installing protective cages around the driver, and of course most cabs are equipped with a panic button by now. But still the problem persists, in my hometown of Winnipeg and throughout the cab-riding world.

Luckily, in cases of robbery of this type, it is fairly rare that the driver gets hurt, though of course there are extreme stories wherein the driver has been killed. There have been other types of outcomes, as well. In Winnipeg there was recently a story involving a cabbie who was forced to crash his car because he was being robbed by a customer, killing the offending passenger in the process. There’s no accounting for what can happen when someone's life is threatened in a contained space.

Despite the fact that they’re brutally expensive, all kinds of people use cabs. For this reason, the prospect of actually driving a cab around all night is scary, no matter what city you’re talking about. I guess after a while you get used to driving people around, but still I can’t imagine the fear of heading into the downtown bowels to pick up lord knows who from some godforsaken street corner. This is a dangerous profession, in much the same way I’ve always imagined being an ambulance attendant would be dangerous: never knowing where you’re headed, never knowing who you’ll be dealing with, if they’re hostile. My hat goes off to those people who drive right into the pit of snakes. There are many of us who will never muster the guts to do the same. Here’s hoping we can find a way to keep the helpers of the night safe and sound.