Driven

Martha
San Salvador, El Salvador
transporter

In New York, nothing could be more indispensable than three things relating to transportation: the subway, messenger bikes, and taxi cabs.

What one hardly finds though among these modes of transport is that not many females operate these vehicles. Could it be that females drive less faster than their males counterparts? Martha doesn’t believe so. After driving her own black, Lincoln cab for over three years, she has observed that women utility drivers are just as rapid on the wheels as the men, and a whole lot more cautious, too.

Martha became a cabbie three years ago when she had to fend for herself after the sudden loss of her husband whom she totally relied upon for over thirty years. A relative had suggested driving a cab as a potential livelihood, and the initially reluctant Martha agreed upon it after realizing that it was the one job which allowed her to be her own boss.

Starting out was very difficult for Martha though, not just because of the nature of the job but mostly because the male drivers stationed by the Brooklyn Mall were giving her a hard time. They were very aggressive and unaccommodating, a lot of times she would see her would-be passengers taken away from her by the other drivers who would cut in front of her lane. Several times she also found her regular waiting spot occupied by another driver who would completely ignore her pleas of letting her have her spot back.

The awful treatment she was getting from the men would have been enough to drive any driver to a state of road rage. Martha, however, refused to reciprocate the same hostile attitude to her fellow cabbies. She realized the only way to get in the game was to befriend these other cab drivers and really get to know them better. It took a while for her to get them to accept her, but slowly, one by one, they each warmed up to her and began to treat her like one of the guys. She even went as far as feeding them with her home-cooked delicacies, gaining her the respect she yearned, as well as the sheer admiration she totally deserved.

Soon enough, the cab drivers by the Brooklyn Mall became this close-knit family, and Martha, with whom the men fondly call, “Mami,” has learned to appreciate her job even more. Just like the rest of them, the skyrocketing gas price has greatly affected her daily operations, but at the end of the day, Martha feels thankful of her job as a cab driver.

“Driving is a very hard job,” Martha remarked. “But it’s also a good job because I get to talk to interesting people all the time, and I forget my problems and worries. And it’s also fun to share stories with my boys as to how their own travels went for the day. We each have funny stories to tell to one another all the time.”