Because the price on a taxi ride is negotiable, taxi drivers will use any excuse to increase the price of a fare. They say they are raising the price either because of the time of day you are traveling, or what part of the city you are traveling to and the distance it is; as well there are also overall conditions such as the rising gas prices and the traffic, all which factor into their calculations of getting as much as they can from you. Today I got someone talking about the traffic and distance I wanted to go and he even mentioned the sun as a justification for his high price, "Yeah and the heat too." he says. I let that one comment go and we went around and around with the price and he said again how hot it was. I looked at him and said, "Did you say the sun was a factor??" And he said, "Yeah, the sun, it's hot". I said, "Man, what does that have to do with the price of a taxi ride?!" He didn't seem to have a good answer. I continued and said, "Now you can use the rain..." I said, "that is a totally acceptable excuse for raising the fare and that actually affects traffic and difficulty in getting one place to the other... but Sun?! I said, No, I'm not buying into your argument about the sun." He actually relented and say, "Okay, well you're right, but it's hot anyway and there's a lot of traffic". Luckily I finally got him down to my price and I got in the car. We had the usual chit-chat about the US and how he really wants to go to the US to make money to send him to his family. I wished him luck in that and told him how great his own country was in terms of people, the peaceful nature, the ocean, the food... my usual mantra in pumping up Senegalese about their country, which is true... and he said yeah, but we don't have money and its hard to get ahead. There wasn't really anywhere we could go with that conversation so we slipped back into silence. A few minutes later we were on the smooth road that brings us into the city and my taxi guy (a young nipper) was trying to pass another taxi. He gave a friendly honk and started to pass but I realized that even as he was increasing his speed, he wasn't managing to pass the other taxi. I realized that the other taxi guy increased his speed to keep my guy from passing. I don't know why, but that's what he was doing. Of course my driver now thought it was a personal mission to pass the other taxi guy and pushed harder down on his gas pedal too. But the whole situation was completely ridiculous because both of the taxis were practically falling apart so neither of them could really get over 40 MPH--it was clear both of them were at their top speed which I estimated about 35 MPH. I'm sorry, but you can't be a bad-ass driver at 35 MPH...no matter how much you want to be. But there we were--my driver in some of informal race with another taxi driver, as if it were a matter of pride. We were approaching a round point so I finally told my guy that the other driver was just a jerk and to let it go. I had to repeat this a few times as we came closer and closer to this roundabout....Although looking over at his face, he seemed to be having a good time having this little race and seemed reluctant to let his taxi man rival resume his place in first position. Although I wasn't nervous, at the same time I was glad it was over and I came to my final destination in one piece.
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