I'm in the transit lane in front of the Rose Quarter, to pick up someone from the MAX.
August 27th, 2008
“Son of a bitch, you’re running up the meter!”27 comments
August 20th, 2008
"Hey bro, remember me? You wrote that story about me in the paper."3 comments
August 13th, 2008
“It’s the Californians, man, the Californians are the worst.”15 comments
August 6th, 2008
The middle-aged man I picked up at Vendetta is in a hyperactively verbose lather ...0 comments
July 23rd, 2008
When I step into the obese old woman's apartment5 comments
July 16th, 2008
The obese old woman at Fred Meyer has a bad hip and a wheelchair...8 comments
July 9th, 2008
“...I need to take a shower first and wash all of this blood off.”6 comments
July 2nd, 2008
“So I’ve got these two women in the back of my cab who just refuse to get out...”8 comments
June 25th, 2008
“My friend’s getting divorced, and he’s really drunk,” says the bartender...8 comments
June 18th, 2008
There’s nothing like a good Friday night, and I’m referring to the money.3 comments
[December 20th, 2006] I'm in the transit lane in front of the Rose Quarter, to pick up someone from the MAX. A cop sits about 50 feet in front of me. No passenger arrives, so I drive off, waving at the cop as I go by.
So I'm rather startled to see his lights start flashing, and I stop about halfway up the block. And the bastard gives me a ticket for using a bus lane. "But officer, the cabs are allowed to use the bus lanes after 7 and on the weekends."
He disagrees. "No, that's only the bus mall downtown."
"With all due respect," I say, "I've been doing this for years and have never heard that. I've sat and chatted with cops in this lane."
He doesn't care. "That's their business. I'm writing you a ticket for failure to obey a traffic device." Fuck. I have never had a ticket before.
Once at court, the first 20 people are all dismissed for various reasons. Naturally, I'm the first one on the docket who will actually be tried. The cop tells his version of the story. I am asked for mine.
"Well, your honor, he omitted one pertinent fact from his account, which is that I was driving a taxicab at the time." The judge frowns at the cop. But no actual law about cabs being allowed in the bus lanes can be found (turns out it's more of a "gentlemen's agreement"), so with some reluctance the judge convicts me, while discharging any penalty. Sigh. At least I didn't have to pay the $400.
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RECENT COMMENTS ON “I'm in the transit lane in front of the Rose Quarter, to pick up someone from the MAX.”
Revenue. It's all about revenue. Yeah, the cops used to leave us alone...not anymore. You can be ticketed if someone smokes a cigarette in your cab now, $100, per city ordinance # 178705. Seat Bel...
Correction.
This clunky, antiquated website will not allow me to edit my comment for typos...so, the third paragraph was supposed to end with the phrase:
", we ca...
Ok..so they'll ticket a cab driver for pulling into a bus lane for a few seconds...but not a damned bicyclist for being parked in the left turn lane waiting for the light to change which is triggered ...
Nope. Not the revenue. It's the steroids that makes a few really mean.
