Taxi Cab Theory: Why Bad Timing Could Be The Reason You're Single

Fans of HBO's "Sex and the City" remember how the show revolved around the four main female characters and their escapades in trying to find love in New York City. Though they each encountered a revolving circle of inept, dysfunctional, and generally horrible partners, they also somehow managed to find love at certain points in their lives, though for some of them, it didn't last very long.

While the show will forever be remembered for some terrible dating stories, like when Carrie was broken up with on a post-it or Charlotte dated the guy who kept adjusting himself in public, it also put certain dating theories into the forefront. One was the infamous taxi cab theory coined by Miranda Hobbs.

During a ladies' lunch, Charlotte talks about how love is all about fate when level-headed Miranda chimes in, "It's not fate, his light is on—that's all. Men are like cabs; when they're available, their light goes on," Miranda quips (via PureWow). "They wake up one day and decide they're ready to settle down, have babies, (whatever), and they turn their light on. [The] next woman they pick up, boom! That's the one they'll marry. It's not fate, it's dumb luck."

The taxi cab theory basically comes down to the fact that when a man is ready to settle down, he will find whoever is available at the time and snatch them up, because his light is on. It's actually similar to the popular notions of being at the right place at the right time or when the time is right.

However, finding love can't be quite as simple as the taxi cab theory though because partners still need to have some level of shared interest and camaraderie in order for things to work long-term. After all, not everything that happened on "SATC" was true to life.

While it's surely happened and we've all heard stories of chance meetings at airports when flights were canceled or when someone met their life partner at a place they shouldn't ever have been, banking on finding love in this way isn't the healthiest mindset. You can't just go to random places thinking your life partner will be there. On the flip side, if a man doesn't have his light on, there's no point in pursuing something that just isn't going to happen.

It's also worth noting that if you're looking for a reason why you're single, that may be a faulty thought from the get-go. Being in a relationship doesn't equate with happiness all the time. In fact, the opposite may be true. While heterosexual men surely benefit from being in a couple, heterosexual women don't.

Happiness expert and professor of behavioral science at the London School of Economics, Paul Dolan told Psychology Today, "the healthiest and happiest population subgroup are women who never married or had children." Women tend to do more household and emotional work, plan social engagements, and generally keep the couple's life running smoothly. It's surely something Miranda would agree on.

Instead of ruminating on reasons why a woman is single, perhaps it's time we start to embrace the freedom, self-exploration, and rejuvenation that being single provides. More importantly, it's time we teach the little girls in our lives that their life should revolve around them and everything they'd like to do with it, and not just on finding a partner.