Why Robert De Niro Is Not A Female Cabbie at the London Olympics

[Voyages Groupe Ideal]

 So I was watching 60 Minutes or was it Dateline or was it 20/20 or Anderson Cooper 360 or are they all really one show about slightly different views on the same stories?

Yeah so it was about the London Olympics and how the city has informed the Taxi Drivers that they will be limited in terms of their routes and where they can and cannot drive/drop off clients, etc.

Anyway that is probably not what the story was about but what it made me realize is that there are very few female cab drivers here in Montreal and perhaps where you live as well. What made me think of this was that in the story that I may have made up partially that may have been on 60 minutes or Dateline or 20/20 is that the cab driver they featured was a woman and a pretty cool one at that.

I have never in all my travels had a female cab driver and you know what? I would really like to have a female cab driver. Given that I watched Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver more than once (I have no idea why - maybe there was nothing else on except 20/20 or 60 Minutes) I have always been a bit worried that my cab driver may drive off with me to somewhere other than the address I have given and my sense of direction is so bad that I wouldn’t even notice we were off course.

And also I think I would have more to say to a female cab driver than a male cab driver. I was recently in New York and my male cab driver began to utter strange words to himself under his breath (whatever that expression means?) and then got out of the cab at a red light and started doing Tai Chi in the street until another cabbie yelled at him to get back in the car and drive (and I would like to personally thank that other cabbie). 

Maybe the female cab driver and I could complain about how our bodies have changed or how we suddenly get really hot and sweaty even when we are in air conditioned spaces and how we aren’t sure if we should keep dying our hair or just give it up and go grey like Katherine Hepburn did and she looked great but we are not Katherine Hepburn so that does require some more thought. Henry Fonda also went grey and I can prove it in the photo below from On Golden Pond which was a beautiful movie but it lacked in female cab drivers.

Maybe a female cab driver would watch to see that I get into the hotel okay before taking off or she would offer to pick me up when I am ready to go for dinner and maybe even come in with me so I don’t have to eat alone in a strange city. Maybe we have read or even better are presently reading the same book also having to do with the word "grey".

But I’ll tell you this, whether male or female, cab drivers deserve the respect of tourists and Corporate Road Warriors. They drive long hours in all sorts of conditions and they often deal with hostile drivers and passengers. They are told which routes to take (by people who actually know where they are going as opposed to me who could very well be on my way to somewhere I never thought I was going) and they don’t often have the opportunity to get out of their cabs and do some relaxing Tai Chi moves at red lights.

Anyway – here is to there being more fine women out their behind the cab wheels and to all those great Prime Time News shows that talk about so much and yet so little.

Voyages Groupe Ideal – Ideal Travel

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[Voyages Groupe Ideal]

Hi Ed - yes - your girlfriend or past girlfriend with car service does count - glad to hear there are some ladies out there driving for a living.

[José Balido]

Nice piece, Lisa. Actually made me chuckle! :-)

[Ed Wetschler]

I had a girlfriend who drove for a car service in NYC. Does that count?