I've name changed for this because it is outing. We got into a cab today in Covent Garden. I asked the driver if he could take us to King's Cross, he didn't answer me. I asked him if he had heard me okay. I'm mentioning this because I thought he was miserable and rude at the start of the journey.
Up to now I've always been really lucky with the London cabs I've got into. The driver has been unfailingly polite and always got me where I needed to be in good time. I think it's quite a skill. I use them on trips to London about two or three times a year. I tried Uber and found them utter rubbish. I've never had the incident that happened today occur before.
The driver drove up Upper Woburn Place, you can't turn right onto Euston Road, you have to loop round. But he was in the left hand lane, as if to go straight ahead. Just after crossing Euston Road he swerved in front of the car behind as if he had forgotten where he needed to be (to enable him to turn right and back onto Euston Road). The driver behind toots his horn as if to say "you could have given me a bit of warning before you cut in front of me". Cab driver then refused to move forward, even though the traffic was moving forward; this was to piss off the driver behind for tooting at him. I was checking my phone for a few seconds then I looked up when the driver from behind pulls up on our cab driver's left. Cab driver winds his window down and the guy from behind said "what you doing man?" He wasn't too crazy or aggressive .. obviously just wanting to let the cab driver know he was out of order. The cab driver WAS aggressive and really sarcastic. One of the things he said to the driver was "Aw, what you gona do, take it to the African Embassy?". The cab driver looked and spoke as if he was from India, or perhaps the Middle East or North Africa (I didn't get a really good look at him). The other driver was black. The other driver did not respond, he just looked sad, really. I think, but I don't know, that the cab driver was taunting the other driver with a racist jibe. It was all pretty unpleasant. My kids were just looking into their lap, wondering how it was going to end. The whole business took about 5 or 6 minutes, and we were just sitting in the back of the cab wondering how long it would go on for, whether we should just get out there and then whilst the cab was stationary and the shouting was going on (although that would have been dangerous, obviously) or whether we should tell him to get a move on. As it happened it did cost us the train we had booked, we were cutting it fine for time.
It was all just a bit shit really .. I thought London cab drivers had to work hard to get and keep their licence, and had a fairly good reputation.
Is this sort of thing a common occurrence now and I'm being naive, or should it not have happened?