Nothing Special

Generally after each shift I head home thinking, ‘what happened tonight, did I carry any interesting fares, what will I post on ?’. As last night was nothing special, I’ll instead report on a few encounters relevant to recent posts...

Regarding my post on bicycle safety, I paid special attention last night to the peak hour and evening cyclists, when I wasn’t preoccupied with traffic and fares. Whilst I noted plenty of mountain bikes, surprisingly, I only spotted one road bike. He was waiting to turn off the busy Pacific Highway and had taken a jump-position in front of a taxi. Due to his feet being encased in pedal covers he was unable to put a steadying foot on the ground, and so wobbled precariously to stay upright. A common sight with road bikes.

Early in the evening I carried a thirty something Dutchman from the large accounting firm, KPMG. We discussed the general cost of living here, plus the relative costs of taxis in Sydney and the Netherlands. ‘Are taxis cheaper here than in Holland ?’, I asked. ‘Yes of course’, he replied without hesitation. ‘they’re cheaper than almost anywhere in northern Europe. In Amsterdam the flag fall is $5 and this trip would cost around $25’. Here the flag fall is $2.90 and his trip cost $9.50.

This difference in fares sounded hard to believe, so I inquired if he knew of the Big Mac Index. Being in finance he knew of it but was of the opinion is was somewhat outdated and suggested, ‘The latté index is probably a better guide to relative purchasing power. A cappuccino in Amsterdam is around $4-4.50 and here I pay $3-3.50'. Unfortunately the journey ended before I could ask why he thought the Big Mac Index was outdated, or why the latté index is a better guide.

Shortly after I took a young office woman from the City to Lidcombe. She sat in the back and I lazily used my security screen as an excuse not to speak to her. I kind of felt bad about that but I wasn’t feeling very sociable. At the end she handed over a credit card for the $41.20 fare and said, ‘Just make it forty five’. ‘Aw thanks’, I said, presuming my driving had resulted in a cheaper fare, a common occurrence, and so she’d elected to pay the normal rate. This often happens with company-paid fares as the passenger prefers to present consistent taxi records.

Out of curiosity I inquired, ‘Is that what you normally pay ?’. ‘I don’t know’, she said, ‘I’ve been working in London for the last two years and this is my first week back’. So I asked her, ‘The London black cabs are more expensive than here, no ?’. ‘Absolutely !’, she laughed. ‘But the mini-cabs are much cheaper..?’. ‘Yes but they haven’t got a very good reputation’, she replied. ‘My company would only use one mini-cab driver, who we knew. The rest of the time we used black cabs’. Additionally, over the weekend an Irish couple surprised me by insisting Dublin taxis were the most expensive in Europe.

Finally I carried three young office women home from The Basement nightclub. They were hyped-up from dancing to some high-energy instrumental band. Normally I’d inquire on what band they’d seen. However the front seat woman continually cooed, ‘They were amaaaazing; increeeedible; sooooo much energy; soooo much emotion; soooo good’, over and over to the point where I just wanted to gag her (forgive me, I was tired). Later at home I checked the Web for information on this ‘amaaazing’ band. No comment.

Comments

[Jon]

Hello, I'm a Yankee who has been reading and enjoying your blog for a while now, but I've never commented. But since you mentioned a question about finance / economics (I'm an economist), I thought I'd hazard a guess. And that's all it is, is a speculative guess :)

The idea of the Big Mac Index is to reindex the costs of a good or service based on a principle called PPP (purchasing power parity): in this case the idea is to price the cost of a cab ride in terms of a bundle of goods you'd otherwise consume... like how many vegetables, days of rent, massages, or whatever you could buy instead of a taxi ride. That's sort of the more "honest" way to price a taxi ride across different countries.

So to the extent that the Big Mac represents this other bundle of goods, it is a good way to price the relative cost of a taxi. But food tends to have a very volatile price--for example, uncooked retail ground beef prices over the last 6 years or so in America have risen like 60%. But this might be special to the U.S., in which case taxi rides are now artificially cheap compared to Big Mac Prices (but wouldn't be much cheaper if you compared them to a broader range of goods).

So this is the speculative part: the large chunk of the cost of a latte is in labor, not in ingredients. Wages tend to be less volatile than food prices and a better indicator of the relative costs of other goods in the economy. It certainly isn't perfect, but it seems like it'd be better than the Big Mac.

I hope that's helpful without being obnoxious.

[Lee]

Your story about 'The Basement' Adrian, reminded of when I was visiting Sydney often in my sales/marketing role for Hinchinbrook Island. I'd attend the ATEs (Australian Tourist Exchange), seminars, the Sydney Holiday Show etc. Through these trips to Sydney and also to other cities promoting the island, I'd meet up with the same folk city to city doing the same things I was in promoting their 'product' and we'd all socialize together at the end of the day. One guy, from Melbourne who was originally from NZ, and I became good friends and would catch up with each other when I was down 'South'. One time he took me to the "Blue Moon" in the Cross, making me promise faithfully beforehand that I would never go there alone! Descending the narrow stairway into a dimly-lit room,I wondered where he was taking me to...but as soon as I heard the music, I understood. Great live 'blues'was playing...I opted not to have a drink as I was unsure what I would get...but wow! The music was wonderful!

I often wonder if the 'Blue Moon' is still operating. Also, is the 'Bourbon & Beefsteak' still going? We used to have some great times there, too.

[Patrick Keogh]

Adrian,

With regard to your ongoing personal campaign against road bikes - what you think of as wobbling is really balancing, so that you can stay stationary on the bike without putting a foot down. It is not related to whether it is a road bike or a MTB. It is related to whether the rider is "clipped in" to the pedals or just using pedals that work with ordinary shoes. All of my bikes (MTB and road) use "clip in" pedals and shoes, so if I am stopped at the lights on my MTB I will be balancing in exactly the same way.

Just in case you think that you might suggest that cyclists would be safer not using clip-in pedals and shoes, take a deep breath and go do something else. Being "clipped in" enormously improves bike control and the ability to brake and change direction quickly. It is a significant addition to rider safety. I would no more ride my bike without clicking into the pedals than I would ride without my helmet!

Regards,
Patrick

[Travis]

This stationary wobbling you refer to is called a "track stand". Its a common "trick" among advanced cyclists.

These two articles explain what they are for, and how to do them:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Track_stand
http://www.teamestrogen.com/articles/asa_trackstand.asp

[TimC]

And it's rather easy to do without coming to greif, after a little practice. If you suddenly lose balance due to a gust of wind or gumbiness, then you can clip out very quickly, and put your foot on the ground. They clips are exactly the same as bindings used in skis -- they were transferred to the bicycle market after one manufacturer noted how well they worked on skis. Even though you are clipped in securely, they don't subtract from safety in the event of a crash, because your feet automatically clip out when the bike is twisted away from you.

We trackstand because it's a pain to clip out unnecessarily, and put our foot down -- and it takes us from anywhere from a second (normally), to fifteen seconds (with uncooperative pedals, travelling over tram tracks, and then proceeding into potholes) to clip in. Ie, we're speeding up the process of getting out of your precious way. Which saves our lives in the case of a road rager behind us, and since you aren't usually aware of road ragers until they get pissed off, it's best to treat everyone as a potential rager.

[adrian]

Thanks Jon, an interesting explanation for the BMI's 'currency'.
Lee, B&B now renovated and called 'The Bourbon'.
Pat/Travis/TimC, I understand the reasons for trackstanding and accept that modern foot/pedal fasteners are more functional.

[Lee]

Thanks for that info on the "B&B", Adrian. I had some fun times there in the mid-eighties. I was there one night with half of the population of Ireland! They were Rugby Union fans/followers and had travelled halfway around the world following the game, It used to be such a fun place. I hope it's not lost it's ambience with the renovations. Sometimes the tourism trade shows wouldn't finish until 10 at night so it would be a quick dash back to whatever hotel you were staying at...I always stayed at The Gazebo in the Cross...a quick shower and change and out to enjoy the evening. We would have all arranged to meet up at the 'B&B'. I remember often enjoying a meal of tacos at 2am!