Chicago -
Date Taken: 07/06/07
From: Wicker Park
To: River North
The Cab: Clean, but not fussily so. I’m guessing the driver, however, is unaware of the Transformers sticker behind him on the back of the bench seat. Perhaps this is viral cab marketing.
The Driver: I really didn’t notice the presence of a driver. And yet, our interactions with a particular CTA bus was reminiscent of Peter Griffin vs. The Giant Chicken.
Posted on July 12, 2007
Date Taken: 06/05/07
From: North Loop
To: Albany Park
The Cab: Was filled with miniature hookers who stumbled from the backseat and blocked the door while their pimp paid the fare. After pushing past them I discovered they were actually three fashionably dressed eleven-year-old girls and an exhausted father. I was astonished when I saw the cab’s leather seats. I wondered for a moment if it was fine, Corinthian leather. An enormous amount of black rubber sheeting covered the floor and the excess bulged from below the drivers’ seat. A “U” shaped slice had been cut into the back seat divider. White synthetic filaments fanned out of it and made a tiny Santa beard. A picture of the illegal Chicago Olympic torch logo was pasted onto the Plexiglas divider. The cab smelled like – nothing. Sweet, unexpected nothing.
Posted on June 7, 2007
Date Taken: 5/23/07
From: Navy Pier
To: Wicker Park
The Cab: Scented by Royal Pine. A little light shining above the driver’s ID tag. A “No Smoking” sign in silver lettering on red background circa 1975 tacked onto the divider. Stevie Ray Vaughn playing on low volume. His stuff really doesn’t work that way.
The Driver: He can’t really be bothered. His mind is on just about everything else but his job. But he’s such a pro he doesn’t need to think about his driving; that he does by instinct.
Posted on June 1, 2007
Date Taken: 5/23/07
From: Wicker Park
To: Navy Pier
The Cab: Well-kept, clean, nondescript. A weird circular interior roof light above the fare meter. Efficient use of visors for printed materials.
The Driver: Greeted me with a silent nod. Wore stylish rectangular sunglasses. Remained calm and oblivious throughout the trip as if we didn’t nearly hit a car, a school bus, and a trolley. It was only when his crappy jazz-samba Muzak ringtone rang a couple times that I realized he had been engaged in low-volume secret conversations the whole ride.
Posted on May 29, 2007
Date Taken: 5/19/07
From: Wicker Park
To: Roscoe Village
Reviewer’s Note: Many years back – when Glam-To-Go was still the scary Romanian butcher, a cut and blow-dry at Big Hair cost $5, and your reviewer was just another bright-eyed Rust Belt refugee looking to make her name in the city – Ray St. Ray, the Singing Cab Driver, was a fixture in Roscoe Village. You’d peek out the window of Mulligan’s and there he’d be at the Speedway, cleaning the back dash of his spiffed-up rockabilly cab. Hailing him during non-peak hours was almost automatic. After a year or so in the neighborhood, this reviewer had heard his entire musical catalog and knew his polished introductory shtick almost word-for-word. Then, like Cardenas Grocery and Irv’s Adjuvant General Dry Cleaners, he was gone. No more buffed vinyl, no more snappy ties, no more songs about love or sex or chocolate or other. Ahead lay a long succession of non-musical drivers and taxi cab emptiness. Right up until the night of May 19.
Posted on May 24, 2007
Date Taken: 5/16/07
From: Lincoln Park
To: Wicker Park
The Cab: Why do so many cabs use that same perfumey air freshener that certainly doesn’t refresh? I’d rather have my cabs smell like repair garages, or even like working men. An ordinary interior beyond that, though this was one of those cabs with that weird coil-y thing snaking from the front dash to the back dividing window. What, are they pumping that odor directly into the backseat to improve efficiency and speed up the nausea to come?
Posted on May 23, 2007
Date Taken: 5/18/07
From: Roscoe Village
To: Irving Park
The Cab: Boasted the highest burglar-shield-to-fare-window ratio yet experienced, being somewhere in the neighborhood of 30 square inches of ballistics-rated plastic for every one square inch of open space. The backseat breathing room was further obstructed by a bizarre contraption – maybe a stereo, maybe a climate-control device, or maybe just a conversation starter – suspended from the ceiling above the fare window. It boasted four round grate-like openings and what looked like a light on the undercarriage, but no discernable means to make it do whatever it was it was meant to be doing. Despite these unsettling features, the cab was clean and your tobacco-wary reviewer appreciated the oversized “No Smoking” sign posted just behind the driver’s seat.
Posted on May 21, 2007
Date Taken: 5/16/07
From: Wicker Park
To: Lincoln Park
The Cab: A Four Aces cab with the satisfying array-of-four-aces logo on the door. A cab fit for moviemaking; perfectly worn but not dirty. Small tears in the vinyl seat; a broken door-inset litter tray; seat belt straps hanging down below the driver’s seat. It felt right. The engine was just a little rough and the brakes just a little squeaky. Action!
And there would be.
Posted on May 18, 2007
Date Taken: 5/9/07
From: Wicker Park
To: Loop
The Cab: A controlled environment. Aside from a discarded Sun-Times in the back seat, both clean as a whistle and neat as a pin. But so much more. What with the fruity aroma and vibrant Vivaldi. it was like Ravinia in there – without the insufferables. (For some reason I wanted it to be Vivaldi, but I really have no idea.) Add the light use of air conditioning and plump seating and I felt like I was traveling in a bubble. That would not last.
Posted on May 9, 2007
Date Taken: 4/27/07
From: Roscoe Village
To: Old Irving
The Cab: Heavily fortified and upholstered in rich tobacco hues. Fort Knox-style rear doors. Maybe it was the deep-gauge vinyl seat covering, but the whole thing seemed thicker than a normal cab.
Posted on April 30, 2007
