After arriving at Central Station on one of the last trains back at 1am,havingreported on the concert from outside the stadium,all the bus services I’d normally catch home had ended for the evening,effectively forcing me to take a cab or Uber.
And as I ventured off the Grand Concourse,I witnessed what could only be described as Swift-induced chaos. Hundreds of people were attempting to get a cab home with no marshalling or management,and that made it prime fodder for a good old-fashioned taxi rip off.
My suspicion was first raised when a woman and her elderly mother were turned away from one cab. Before I could tell himmy destination,that driver defended himself:“They were only going 500 metres!“
So I wasn’t surprised when he demanded $50 for my 15-minute trip home. When I requested to pay what the meter said at the end of our trip,he,with masterful choreography that wouldn’t be out of place at the concert,raised his middle finger and drove off.
The same thing happened with the next cab I approached,except he also wanted it upfront in cash (a driver is allowed to request payment ahead of the trip if they’re concerned you aren’t able to pay,but this price was clearly a rort).
It was at that point,when I thought things couldn’t get much classier,that another driver,in some fit of rage,had got out of his car,marched up to the driver in front of him and began aggressively filming him through the window and over the bonnet of his car,only for that driver to begin lurching forward,beginning to run him over.