(Essexjan is likely in the air, as I type!)

I have never lived in NYC, but I have lived in a similarly sized city, and I will get into very detailed and articulated disputes with friends, cabdrivers, strangers, etc. about this very topic. Traffic has a way of bringing out opinions. Good luck!

Yeah msali. . .I would wax at length about how to get around LA, which freeways, surface streets, etc. were best at which time of day.

Taxi to the E train sounded best to me (who lived my whole life in NYC.)

Taxi to the E train sounded best to me

Yeah. . .and didn't Billy Strayhorn write a song about that once? Finding the quickest way to Chelsea? It was something like that.

I like that scene at the end of Broadcast News, where Holly Hunter's character has just confronted William Hurt about his very questionable journalism techniques, and broken off their relationship, and she's in a cab going home, crying, and she still can't help but direct the cabbie on the fastest way to get through DC traffic.

It would be nice to live in a city with usable taxi service. I do see taxis on the street but you can't hail them and they're famous for never actually showing up when you call them. If you get Yellow Cab to send a taxi within two hours of your call, you're doing pretty well.