Mention taxi cabs to an urban commuter or pedestrian and you will hear curses. This is because these people drive like shit. Rule. There are exceptions. What the worst part is that these cars are huge. I mean most of them are the largest Ford and Chevrolet product possible. I have also seen my share of mini-vans. These cars are almost always occupied by a single person swallowed up in the back seat. Combine this behaviour with the ingrained behaviour that people feel entitled to their private auto space and you get gridlock on the expressways. You can find this during any rush hour on the Kennedy to O'Hare. Just look for the cabbies swerving from lane to lane to get a ten-foot advantage. Certainly this leads to both frayed nerves of the fare, frazzled drivers continuing getting cutoff and wear and tear on the cab itself which leads to the need to replace them more often which leads to more filth spewing junkets on the road as people snap up these very powerful oversized autos as their own "new" steel coffins. In major metropolitan downtown spaces we must discourage the use of these behemoths. You can put 30 people on a train or bus in the space it takes for just one person to be moved in a cab. Whether it is sliding, covered sidewalks like you find in airports or fleets of "smart" cabs it is time for a change. The slidewalk idea could replace virtually all private automobiles. It will have to. This or other ideas must be tested and put into use as soon as possible. Our dependence on oil is an addiction that must be broken!