You’ve probably read that I like our cabbies and how easy it is to get an inexpensive ride in and around Hoboken. But leave it to the government to mess things up. See, recently, some genius decided installing a traffic light on the corner of River and Hudson Place. This light not only disrupts the flow of pedestrian traffic in and out of the PATH station but that’s not the subject of this writing - its for some other time.
Anyway.
With the traffic light, Hoboken also changed the traffic pattern for the taxis. Before, the cabs would line up right in front of the PATH station (on the left hand side if you were facing west). The introduction of the light forced them to the right side of the street (you can’t have cabs driving in the left lane of traffic - this isn’t London, here). But the decision to change sides was a short sighted one and people reacted very negatively.
People coming out of the PATH would cross the street in a hurry to make sure they actually got one as there wasn’t always a long line of yellow waiting for passengers. They would cross no matter what the traffic signal was or what the crosswalk sign said and, in the end, blocked cars (and other taxis) from entering Hudson Place. No one could park or turn around to get in the taxi line for new riders. And when the light was red, the cabs couldn’t go anywhere. People would wait in a cab for 5 minutes or more if the light wasn’t in their favor. So the attractiveness of the taxi cabs became considerably less than what it used to be. So in their infinite wisdom, the planners moved the taxi stand again. But this time… No one knows where it is!!
I stood outside for a few minutes and watched people line up where they thought the stand would be but only saw confusion on everyone’s face and cabs driving away to who knows where. I gave up and walked home. Thankfully, I only wanted to get home faster and didn’t have to deal with bad weather.
Does any one know where the new taxi stand is?
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