A Little Kindness Couldn’t Hurt

Catch a cab out of Los Angeles International Airport often enough and you understand the rationale behind a proposal to put the city’s 4,000 taxi drivers through a two-hour sensitivity and etiquette course. While most cabbies are professional and eager to please--not to mention eager for a fat tip--more than a few have only the vaguest notion of what constitutes good service and manners.

At a cost of $100,000, city transit officials want to make drivers more aware of the needs of elderly or disabled passengers as well as give them a few pointers on basic rules of etiquette. But to many drivers still crabbing about the dress code put in place in 1990 (shirts tucked in and no shorts, please), the course sounds like a waste of time and money. Nonetheless, the City Council should approve the program when it votes later this month.

Giving cabbies pointers on poise is nothing new. Even in New York--where studied rudeness defines the city’s popular image--cab drivers are officially encouraged to put on a happy face so as not to offend the tourists. Here in Los Angeles, where personal cars are practically birthrights, cab driver training is all the more important because passengers tend to be elderly, disabled or out-of-towners.

By alerting cabbies to potentially offensive behavior, the course can have a dual effect. It can help them better address the needs of their frailest passengers. And it can reinforce the idea that cabbies often are a visitor’s first L.A. contact. First impressions do matter.