Recent taxi scares won't limit students' use

With police reports of armed robbery surfacing and their own personal horror stories, University of Georgia students are becoming concerned about their means of transportation home from downtown Athens.

Of 25 students asked at Georgia’s Tate Student Center Friday afternoon, 23 said they had used a cab to get home from downtown Athens at least once in the last month.

Of those 23, 17 said they had had a “less than comfortable” experience while riding a cab, citing anything from sexual harassment from their driver to a driver changing their rate upon dropping them off at home.

“I don’t trust taxi drivers around here at all,” said Austin Sherrill, a senior who says he takes a cab home from downtown Athens “once or twice a week.”

“Everyone has their horror stories ... There’s no screening process at all.”

A story in Friday’s Red & Black detailed two police reports from the weekend, each filed by University students and each describing dangerous incidences in taxis.

Though charges were dropped both cases, fear of taxi-travel is still common among University students.

Said senior Daniel Visconti: “There’s no way anyone should feel safe taking cabs around here. I work at Domino’s [pizza], and I’ve even picked people up from downtown and charged them like a taxi when I’m out on runs. Anybody could pretend to be a legit taxi.”

But despite all that, students’ willingness to find other ways home after a night of drinking doesn’t seem to be changing — all 23 who said they routinely take taxis admitted they would continue to do so in the future.

“What other option is there?” said Anna Cleveland, a sophomore at the Univeristy. “You can’t drive drunk obviously, and how many people have friends that want to drive them around at 3 a.m. all the time? We need taxis.”

“Yeah, I’ll keep taking taxis,” Visconti said. “But that story in The Red & Black today scared the bejeezus out of me.”