1)I don’t think the travel which involves frequent flyer partnership, including another country in your trip etc involves hanging out in NY.much.
2) everything you say may be true of NY cabbies but obviously you have never taken a cab in DELHI. It is so bad that women are advised to not take a taxi at night alone (a zillion flights from europe arrive around 1 and 2am so loads of people find themselves there in the pisshours of the night)
3) i’ve been in a cab with several MEN trailing with me, all who MOST EMPHATICALLY gave the name of the place we are going to, the cross street of a MAJOR rd, THE MAJOR HOSPITAL which is RIGHT across from it and the taxi driver kept arguing and lying that it is “NOT OPEN”, I DON”Y KNOW WHERE IT IS” BS. I’v ben back to the same place a few times in a cab, so it IS there, it IS open, and people KNOW where it is.

4)I took a TUK TUK taxi in Mangalore, and when i refused to pay the unreasonable fee at the end( it was a silly short ride from the bus station to the train station in a SMALL town) he threw the customary HUGE emotional angry pretend fit, “refused” to take the fare I was offering, and walked away. I was unmoved and said find. (inside i was shaken like a martini). After 5 minutes he came back with a big smile and like we are buddies who had a pretend fight, came back warmly and wanted the fare he earlier refuse. I had to pay him back for freaking me out like that and since i had time while waiting for the train I refused and told him a few times he didn’t want it. I explained this occurrence to the ashram vidvan who was very indignant and embarrassed for his countryman.
But i had been warned about these shenanigans so i was prepared. Which don’t mean NY cabbies do this. We travelers are not stupid.

5) if we had just told the cabbie to take us to KarolBagh the general area he wouldn’t have had something to argue with us about – the whole of Karol Bagh CANNOT be closed, but the a****ole took weary travelers who arrived somewhere in the middle of the night and stressed us out big time. The amount of times we had to tell that fool to take us to that intersection was innumerable.

In conclusion – don’t be so indignant and outraged at the advice until you have travelled where this person has. I hope you get foolish***tted by a cab driver in India and waste hours in the night not knowing what to do because he has gone in circles and your smart phone died.
(ok not really – hope you are ok)

Yes, they always do that 😉
Even at home, they get me confused at times.

It’s tough and the, “which way should I take” question can often force you to reveal even more how fresh you are.