Taxi Riding In a moment of personal crisis, how much help can you expect from a New York taxi driver? I began studying this question after watching the 'Taxicab Confessions,' a series of documentaries in which hidden cameras record the secrets of unsuspecting taxi riders. I found the results varied. One morning I got into three different taxis and announced: 'Well, it's my first day back in New York in seven years. I've been in prison.' Not a single driver replied, so I tried again. 'Yeah, I shot a man in Reno,' I explained, hoping the driver would ask me why, so I could say casually, 'Just to watch him die.' But nobody asked. The only response came from a Ghanaian driver:' Reno? That is in Nevada?' Taxi drivers were uniformly sympathetic when I said I'd just been fired. 'This is America,' a Haitian driver said. 'One door is closed. Another is open.' He argued against my plan to bum down my boss's house: 'If you do something silly and they put you away, you cannot look for another job.' A Pakistani driver even turned down a chance to profit from my loss of hope: he refused to take me to the middle of the George Washington Bridge, a $20 trip. 'Why you want to go there? Go home and relax. Don't worry. Take a new job.' One very hot weekday in July, while wearing a red ski mask and holding a stuffed pillowcase with the word 'BANK' on it, I tried hailing a taxi five times outside different banks. The driver picked me up every time. My ride with Guy-Caaude Thevenain, a Haitian driver, was typical of the superb assistance I received. 'Is anyone following us?' 'No,' said the driver, looking in his rearview mirror at traffic and me. 'Let's go across the park,' I said. 'I just robbed the bank there, I got $25,000.' '$25,000?' he asked. 'Yeah, you think it was wrong to take it?' 'No, man. I work 8 hours and I don't make almost $70. If I can do that, I do it too.' As we approached 86th and Lexington, I pointed to the Chemical Bank. 'Hey, there's another bank,' I said, 'could you wait here a minute while I go inside?' 'No, I can't wait. Pay me now.' His reluctance may have had something to do with money—taxi drivers think the rate for waiting time is too low—but I think he wanted me to learn that even a bank robber can't expect unconditional support. From the Ghanaian driver's response, we can infer that