"When school closes, business does too," says Bougy. "If there were no Harvard University, we would have no business."
Prift concurs, saying that most of his business throughout the week comes from students going into Boston or its surrounding environs.
But when vacation time comes, "everyone rushes to the airport," he says.
Doing the Job
Each cab driver offers a different reason for choosing his career.
Bougy says that the money is "not that good, but [he has] nothing else [better] to do." Prift aspires to be a graphic designer for environmental or health issues and attends the Massachusetts College of the Arts. As a cabbie, he is honing his "public relations skills." But it is the anonymous cab driver who gives the altruistic answer. When asked why he remains a cab driver, he simply says, "To help man.