Today on April 6th, I was driving home from work along Fairfax Ave.in the Little Ethiopia section of Los Angeles, headed north around 4:50 P.M.
A Bellcab driver was behind me. A sign up ahead showed that the road narrowed to one lane, and the driver's in the right lane needed to merge into the left hand lane.instead of staying in the proper lane that continued on, the Bellcab driver behind me, with a passenger in his cab, pulled into the right hand lane and speed up to pass me. His lane ended because the right lane merged into the left, and he basically ran me into the oncoming lane of traffic by cutting in front of me and nearly causing me to sideswipe him. I honked my horn and waved my hands at him out of anger, expecting him to apologize for nearly running me into oncoming traffic. The driver, a middle aged middle eastern man flipped me off, then laughed at my anger.
When we approached the next major intersection, he moved over to the left turn lane so I could pull beside him. Let me just say, the passenger was still in the vehicle. He then began yelling at me, and I told him, "You nearly ran me off the road. You can't just move in on someone when your lane ends. You could have killed me." He began waving his hands again, yelling at me in broken English. I informed him that you are supposed to, at minimum, use a turn signal when you're going to pull in front of someone in the the neighboring lane. He left me no room to slow down, no lane to move into. He just cut me off and made me run into opposing traffic. I also asked him if his manuever was worth getting one car lenght ahead of me.
He told me that I was in the wrong lane, and it was my fault. I was in the left lane, and the right lane ended, with a sign clearly stating people in the right hand lane should MERGE left. Not the other way around. Clearly, he could not see, did not want to see, or could not understand what I was saying. The fact that he pulled over in traffic with a passenger inside to argue with me seems like bad conduct regardless. I know if I had been that passenger, I would have wanted my money back for the trip.
So, as he's yelling at me with a passenger in his cab, another cab from his company pulls along my right hand side, as the lanes had once again opened up. He tells the cabbie yelling at me, "Don't worry, I got his number." Then the cabbie that was yelling at me laughed at me, and pulled away.
I know that I would NEVER in a million years recommend this cab company to anyone I know. The drivers are unsafe, rude, and borderline criminal by threatening other drivers they've managed to severely anger.
I wish I would have had a video camera so I could have reported this driver to the police, but unfortunatly, in the heat of the moment, I didn't think to write his license plate number down.
BellCab company owes me an apology as does their driver, and the driver of their other cab who came along to intimidate me. When people's lives are on the line, matters such as this SHOULD NOT be taken lightly. I have a feeling that I'm not the only person this has happened to, and I hope that eventually this company is put out of business.
Until our government puts tighter restrictions on these companies, we are left hoping and praying that the driver we encounter will be a professional driver and not a thug.
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