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Who Wants A Ride?

Who Wants A Ride? is about the Austin Texas pedicab scene. Pedicab drivers tell stories from the streets where they work. The candid tales are funny , sometimes lurid , anthropological lore.

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  1. They have the same style of pedicab in Beijing. I rode them frequently because they were cheaper than car cabs and could navigate through traffic. Most of them had slack chains that dragged on the ground, not sure why.
    Once I asked if I could drive and he ride. Sure he said so I got to move a cab in Beijing myself. Fun times.
    I think I gave them 3 RMB a trip. Probably more than locals but still only about 40 cents a ride.

  2. What the hell does this have to do with the movie? If you want to whine then get a blog.

  3. There are folks like this at the Cowboy’s and Ranger’s stadiums in Arlington, Texas. Very cool people, friendly, and they work their butt’s off. I’m very thankful for the ones that happened to be working during a Texas Longhorn and Nebraska Cornhusker’s game this past college football season. I think it was a bowl game.

    I went for the camaraderie of some people I thought were friends, but found out (again) they are dickheads. I’m substantially crippled and they thought it would be funny to lose me in the crowd while they were in a drunken haze. I wound up starting to try and walk back to our hotel about a mile or so from the Cowboy’s stadium. I didn’t think it would really be too bad of a walk…well…”hobble” considering I’m crippled.

    The cold started sort of getting to me and my feet started getting pressure blisters and bleeding. Not good because I’m also diabetic. I had sat down on the curb to look at how bad my feet were getting and to try and pad the pressure wounds with cloth from a t-shirt I had bought. It was looking grim and I knew some bad repercussions were going to come around.

    The traffic was bumper to bumper, it was cold, and I was surrounded by drunk people. While I was sitting on the curb after shredding the t-shirt for bandages, one of the bicycle cabbies pulled up beside me and asked if I needed a ride to my car or hotel. I didn’t have a whole lot of cash on me and told him about this. He said to not worry about it and hop in since it looked like I was in a bad situation.

    I didn’t realize how far away the hotel and my truck actually were. The bicycle cabbie told me the place was a little bit further than I realized….more like two miles! That’s what is so deceptive about Texas. Just because you can see a destination doesn’t mean your close to it. Curse of the flat lands. Heh!

    Anyways…he peddled me to my truck in the hotel parking lot and dropped me off. He didn’t charge me for the ride, but I still gave him my last $20 for his kindness and willingness to help somebody. I don’t remember the guy’s name, but it made me a huge fan of the bicycle cabbies. Hopefully the city of Arlington won’t try and make them illegal like he had mentioned could happen.

    I found out later the dickhead “friends” I was with had gotten thrown in jail for DWI and PI. They never made it back to the hotel so the money they spent on a bad-ass room was a waste. Oh well. I wound up with a staph infection from the pressure sores and had to deal with that for about 4 weeks. Needless to say, I don’t hang out with those douche-bags anymore.

    A month or so later I did slash the tires of three of their vehicles. Don’t fuck with crippled people.

    • vengeance – have you ever considered the people lost you in the crowd not because you’re disabled but because you’re a prick?

      • vengeance …go get a blog you douche bag. Can’t blame anyone for what they did to you, or should that be what you made up.