People nowadays have enough sense to buckle their seatbelts when they’re in the backseat of someone’s car, no matter how short the ride is. Most people I know, when driving, will also remind their passengers to buckle up (especially important when you have guests visiting from countries like Taiwan, which has yet to enforce a backseat seatbelt law). So why is it that when we get into a taxi, we lose our wits and refuse to buckle up?

New York taxi drivers are crazy! I’ve seriously ridden with some crazy cab drivers here. They’ll accelerate madly for 200 ft before slamming on their breaks to avoid the car in front of them, that was STOPPED the whole time, honking and complaining the whole way. They poke their nose out into the neighboring lane and cut off other cabs.

Yes, it’s annoying and slightly gross to have to dig out the seatbelt in a cab. But don’t mess around with your life like that. You’re not invincible just cuz there’s a middle partition and you’re paying someone to drive you.