Crazy Pirates

As I found out during a long weekend in Miami, a trip in a taxi differs substantially from that in New York. To begin with, the cabs in Miami are driver and rider friendly - in that they encourage conversation between both companies due to the lack of what I assume in New York is a bullet-proof (and thus mainly conversation-proof) partition. A description in an article by New York Times writer Sewell Chan from 2005 aptly describes the job of said partition in NYC cabs: “It emerged in the 1960's as an invention born of fear: the taxicab partition, meant to spare the lives of drivers at a time of gunfire, armed robberies and murders.” Chan best captures the loss of human to human contact with his observation, “with the partition closed, the classic cabbie conversation - the one about politics and local lore, current events and competing theories about the best way from, say, Midtown to Kennedy - would become all but impossible.”

Well my friends, in Miami the ‘cabbie conversation’ is fully alive and kicking. Almost every taxi trip was filled with colorful conversation, covering wide ranging topics, including; true to Chan, politics, local lore and current events. One particularly engaging man was Raphael, or ‘Ralph Taxi;’ accompanied by ‘Professional Service’ and ‘WE GO EVERYWHERE,’ as his business card reads.

Ralph is from Peru. In his home country he worked as a musician, composing and compiling pieces for advertisements and screenplays. Ralph loves to talk, and talk he does.

I learned that he has family members in far reaching places such as Paris, Germany and yes, even one starting school in Toronto next year.

Ralph takes his job very seriously. And he’s good at it. He drove at a comfortable speed and took the corners gently as he told me about what he does. “So many of the taxi drivers are nuts here,” he said. “They’re like crazy pirates on the road.” (He should go to New York).

As the Olympics were going on during my stay in Miami, I asked Ralph if he watched any of the sporting events. He said he didn’t, adding that he felt that it was his responsibility to “organize the other crazy pirates” on the road and make sure they were in the right locations.

It’s always so fascinating talking to cab drivers when you get the chance - often their stories are so interesting and filled with insightful anecdotes. Sit back, or forward, rather, and engage in conversation and share in a 5, 10 or 15 minute chinwag with a perfect stranger. What is there to lose?