Getting Around: Taxis

If buses are the lead in the dangerous dance of Bogotáno traffic, their more graceful and agile partners are certainly the many tiny taxis jamming the streets. While the buses dominate the road way, the cabs are capable of weaving in and out of the way of their larger companions by utilizing some of the most spectacular death-defying maneuvers. These guys have to be some of the best drivers on Earth.

The cabs here are plentiful and, in my experience, relatively cheap. You can get halfway across the city for about ten thousand pesos (or a little less than $5 USD). Thanks to the numbered streets, its pretty easy to communicate where you want to go even if your Spanish, like mine, is poor.

Just like buses, the density of cabs makes them pretty easy to grab on any street corner. However, one of the nicest features of the cab companies here are their automated phone ordering systems. They have easy to remember phone numbers like 1-222222 or 1-444444. Even easier for the foreign visitor is the fact that you don't have to speak to anyone if you are calling from a land line. Just acknowledge you want a cab and they send it to the address associated with the phone number.

Once you climb into your cab and give the driver your destination, you'll notice one major difference from cabs in the U.S.: the size. Happily, the entire fleet of cabs in Bogotá (and cars in general - another post!) is made up of small, fuel-efficient vehicles. This is a big contrast from the full-size, gas guzzling Ford Crown Vics that are the standard in the U.S. While the extra leg room is nice, the recent rise in the price of gasoline has been devastating for cab drivers in Chicago and around the U.S. further driving up the cost of cabs via government imposed fuel surcharges. This is much less of an issue here.

Once the cab starts rolling down the calle, the thrill ride begins. I recommend not paying attention to some of the moves your driver will pull, ignorance is indeed bliss. In a city where the lanes painted on the road seemed to be considered wholly decorative, cab drivers are the masters of squeezing through any hole, cutting off any bus, and making turns onto any street from any lane (amazing!)

After dark, red lights are optional and more often than not you'll find your driver disregarding them completely. I'm told this is legally sanctioned to help avoid robberies but it takes some getting used to.

Not only do drivers engage in this truly impressive behavior, but many of them embrace it. I've been in more than one cab that is suped up like a rally-car, complete with racing-style gauges and steering wheels. Incredible.

After my first few rides, I've left fear in my rear-view mirror and have come to really enjoy and respect the skills of these drivers.