Findings Concerning Cab Location Pin

The cab was booked at 7:10pm.

The estimated arrival was twelve minutes. At 7:14pm, the tracking map was opened. The cab was visible, four streets away, moving in the correct direction. This was satisfying.

At 7:16pm, the cab was three streets away. This was more satisfying.

At 7:17pm, the cab stopped.

The Findings

The cab had been moving for six minutes. It stopped for forty seconds. The app showed the icon as stationary on a street that was not particularly close to the pickup point. Possible explanations were considered:

Traffic: plausible, given the location. Wrong turn: possible, given the sudden stop. Driver stopped to check phone: possible, and slightly alarming. App lag: likely, but not comforting, because the app always seems to lag at the exact moments when real-time information is most needed.

At 7:18pm, the cab moved again. It moved in a direction that was not toward the pickup point.

The Interpretation

The cab moved away from the pickup for twenty seconds. During those twenty seconds, the person waiting refreshed the app twice. The cab moved back toward the correct direction at 7:18:24pm. The twenty-second movement away from the pickup remains unexplained.

It was probably a one-way street.

The person waiting did not know about the one-way street at the time. They knew about it afterward, when the cab arrived and the driver explained the route. During the twenty seconds, they had been constructing a narrative in which the driver had confused the pickup with the dropoff.

The Arrival

The cab arrived at 7:21pm, one minute ahead of the estimated arrival. The driver's route had been efficient. The twenty seconds of movement away from the pickup was the one-way street, as suspected.

The tracking app was closed with the satisfaction of someone who survived a small investigation. The findings are noted for next time. There will be a next time. The twenty seconds will happen again. The interpretation will be the same.