I can already tell they're getting paid too much.

With Australian taxis, ya get some dishevelled, non-English-speaking North African hand you a road map. You gotta give them directions. It's a bloody disgrace.

Just get a GPS app for your phone and play the route for the driver.

For years after moving to London I wondered what the guys riding mopeds with map stands attached to the front were doing. It was only after a friend did The Knowledge that I realised it was people traing to be taxi drivers.

All you really need to know is how to get to Mornington Crescent. It's not that hard. There are a few rules involved, mind you.

Several years ago (late 1990's), I had a business trip to DC (Actually Alexandria) and had to fly into Dulles. I got a shuttle van driver who was on his second day on the job. I took his map book and started navigating when he decided to drive all the way in on I-66 to make sure he didn't miss the bloody 10,000 block of U.S. 50 in Virginia.

3 hours from Dulles to Alexandria, via almost back to Dulles.

Another guy going to the same meeting was checking in to the hotel behind me. Asked him if he flew. "No, I drove from Trenton, it's only about 3 hours."

Marcus Aurelius: You can have some fun with a London cabbie if you're an American going to Heathrow. They'll ply you for your loose change, claiming the stuff's worthless back in the states. True enough. But all the same, make like you have all these worthless pieces of paper too that have nothing but funny queen pictures all over them and maybe he could take them off your hands. He'll see your luggage safely off to the redcaps, at which point you hold your palm out discretely, and when he reaches up, drop your used gum into his hand.

/ok ok so i'm ugly

You're going to have to rework your cunning plan. There are no redcaps at UK airports. Unless you're disabled and have requested assistance in advance, you take your luggage to the check-in desk yourself.

London's Taxi Drivers are scam artists. Unless you've got about $100US to drop for a trip from Heathrow to your train station,take the tube.

I love how the article was specifically about London taxi-drivers, since they have a massively huge exam to pass, and yet the picture is of New York cabs!

Same in Glasgow though. Taxi's cost an arm and a leg, and you don't want to take one. Get the subway, every time.

I wish to God they had training like that in Minneapolis.
Nothing but Somali's not knowing the city and trying to rip you off at the same time.

/well, 70/30.
/30 being the good.
/was here before them.
/bring it.

The study was covered in 'The Shallows. What the Internet is Doing to Our Brains.'
It's an entertaining book, finalist for a Pulitzer this past year. It's a history of neurology and an update on Marshall McLuhan. Boy, doesn't that sound fun! But, really. It is. Spoiler: shortened attention spans.

Took a blackcab while I was on vacation in London. Scary experiance.
They apparently did not care for pedestrians trying to walk across their road. I can't count the times the cabbie damn near plowed through a group of people on the crosswalk. A couple of times they were close enough for someone to kick the side of the cab as it went by.

South Korea was even worse. The sidewalks are considered secondary roads there, and the horn is used as a substitute for the brake.

MythDragon: Took a blackcab while I was on vacation in London. Scary experiance.
They apparently did not care for pedestrians trying to walk across their road. I can't count the times the cabbie damn near plowed through a group of people on the crosswalk. A couple of times they were close enough for someone to kick the side of the cab as it went by.

South Korea was even worse. The sidewalks are considered secondary roads there, and the horn is used as a substitute for the brake.

pedestrians don't have the right of way in the UK, and the streets have warnings to look towards incoming traffic. It's not the taxi on this one, it's the fault of completely idiotic pedestrians. Hell, their streets are designed to mostly (not always) but mostly have traffic going only one direction when you're crossing.

I'll just leave this here...

The Knowledge

Fun movie, by the way, if you're not expecting too much.

MythDragon: Took a blackcab while I was on vacation in London. Scary experiance.
They apparently did not care for pedestrians trying to walk across their road. I can't count the times the cabbie damn near plowed through a group of people on the crosswalk. A couple of times they were close enough for someone to kick the side of the cab as it went by.

South Korea was even worse. The sidewalks are considered secondary roads there, and the horn is used as a substitute for the brake.

Cars have the right of way on roads in the UK. Unless it is a marked zebra crossing (black and white stripes) or a pedestrian crossing with lights on red the car or taxi always has the right of way.

On the other hand, people can cross anywhere traffic permitting. Even if the pedestrian "Dont Walk" sign is flashing you can happily cross if there are no cars or if traffic is stationary.

Flint Ironstag: MythDragon: Took a blackcab while I was on vacation in London. Scary experiance.
They apparently did not care for pedestrians trying to walk across their road. I can't count the times the cabbie damn near plowed through a group of people on the crosswalk. A couple of times they were close enough for someone to kick the side of the cab as it went by.

South Korea was even worse. The sidewalks are considered secondary roads there, and the horn is used as a substitute for the brake.

Cars have the right of way on roads in the UK. Unless it is a marked zebra crossing (black and white stripes) or a pedestrian crossing with lights on red the car or taxi always has the right of way.

On the other hand, people can cross anywhere traffic permitting. Even if the pedestrian "Dont Walk" sign is flashing you can happily cross if there are no cars or if traffic is stationary.

I like this and want this here.

Toronto taxi drivers are mostly recent immigrants. Some are decent, others are hopeless. But with GPS units these days, the computer can replace actual knowledge 80% of the time.
I wish other cities would have exams even one-tenth as hard as London's for taxi drivers.
Hell, I wish they would at least require a "First World Country Personal Hygiene 101" course.

I remember reading they use London taxi cab drivers for experiments to see how the brain physically changes after learning, since you get a sample size of thousands all having to learn the exact same and very difficult thing.

/csb

Whaaaat... dooooeeees... theeeee... yeeeel-looowwww... liiiiight... meeeeaaan?

All I need to get around London is the 1958 Enfield Revision.

/reverse-lateral on Regent Street, then shunt on South Kensington, then I'm good for anywhere
//is it still legal to do that after the 2009 Convention at the Angel?

Tips for aliens in New York:

Land anywhere. Central Park, anywhere. No one will care or indeed even notice.

Surviving

Get a job as a cabdriver immediately. A cabdriver's job is to drive people anywhere they want to go in big yellow machines called taxis. Don't worry if you don't know how the machine works and you can't speak the language, don't understand the geography or indeed the basic physics of the area, and have large green antennae growing out of your head. Believe me, this is the best way of staying inconspicuous.

If your body is REALLY weird, try showing it to people in the streets for money.

/bless you Douglas

jnoel: I wish to God they had training like that in Minneapolis.
Nothing but Somali's not knowing the city and trying to rip you off at the same time.

/well, 70/30.
/30 being the good.
/was here before them.
/bring it.

Hey! I am usually happy if I get home without the "taxi" breaking down or crashing. Seriously, the cabs in the Twin Cities are just beat up minivans. It may be easier to just find a parking spot on the commuter line. There is a park and ride at Fort Snelling, but I have not tried it.

To all you people who are complaining about cab service, New York is still #1 when it comes to scumbag hack drivers.

A New York City cabbie is out on bail after being charged with beating up and robbing a passenger on Saturday. (new window)

Cheesus:

Cars have the right of way on roads in the UK. Unless it is a marked zebra crossing (black and white stripes) or a pedestrian crossing with lights on red the car or taxi always has the right of way.

On the other hand, people can cross anywhere traffic permitting. Even if the pedestrian "Dont Walk" sign is flashing you can happily cross if there are no cars or if traffic is stationary.

I like this and want this here.

It would be carnage due to lower driving standards combined with pedestrians who appear incapable of looking either way before striding into traffic with their kids.

TheYeti: Worst cab drivers: Washington, DC
Best cab drivers: Singapore
Most terrifying: Buenos Aires or anywhere in Colombia

Though, from what I understand a lot of other places in Asia are insane, but I can't claim personal experience.

Dubai taxi drivers are pretty farking terrifying.

Pert: Tips for aliens in New York:

Land anywhere. Central Park, anywhere. No one will care or indeed even notice.

Surviving

Get a job as a cabdriver immediately. A cabdriver's job is to drive people anywhere they want to go in big yellow machines called taxis. Don't worry if you don't know how the machine works and you can't speak the language, don't understand the geography or indeed the basic physics of the area, and have large green antennae growing out of your head. Believe me, this is the best way of staying inconspicuous.

If your body is REALLY weird, try showing it to people in the streets for money.

/bless you Douglas

=======

I agree, and the reason is because of how the medallion system has been perverted by the "free market" types. Once upon a time, driving a cab in NYC was a real job that paid a real wage. Today the only people who will take this job is someone who is eating out of garbage cans. Don't like how NYC cabs are operated? Thank a "millionaire job creator" because the dude who owns the medallion screwed to the hood is probably a millionaire.

dryknife: [redriverpak.files.wordpress.com image 304x380]

Whaaaat... dooooeeees... theeeee... yeeeel-looowwww... liiiiight... meeeeaaan?

Slow down.

You have to hand it to London taxi drivers: taking a low-skill job and raising the barriers to entry to the levels enjoyed by the skilled professions. Nice racket they have going there!

I suppose it beats the medallion racket the taxi companies have in many US cities. At least the customer gets better service as a result, so it's a sort of "honest graft" rather than straight-out graft.

superdude72: You have to hand it to London taxi drivers: taking a low-skill job and raising the barriers to entry to the levels enjoyed by the skilled professions. Nice racket they have going there!

I suppose it beats the medallion racket the taxi companies have in many US cities. At least the customer gets better service as a result, so it's a sort of "honest graft" rather than straight-out graft.

===========

^THIS THIS THIS^

In New York you get ass farked and the beneficiary is the millionaire who owns the medallion. At least in London the cab drivers can speak English and actually know where they are going. To sum up: In NYC you pay a lot of money and get crap service. In London you pay a lot of money by get decent service. It's not the same thing at all.

Farking While Farking: Cheesus:

Cars have the right of way on roads in the UK. Unless it is a marked zebra crossing (black and white stripes) or a pedestrian crossing with lights on red the car or taxi always has the right of way.

On the other hand, people can cross anywhere traffic permitting. Even if the pedestrian "Dont Walk" sign is flashing you can happily cross if there are no cars or if traffic is stationary.

I like this and want this here.

It would be carnage due to lower driving standards combined with pedestrians who appear incapable of looking either way before striding into traffic with their kids.

Exactly! You make it sound like that's a problem.

/It would destroy the revenues college towns get from jaywalking tickets

jnoel: I wish to God they had training like that in Minneapolis.
Nothing but Somali's not knowing the city and trying to rip you off at the same time.

/well, 70/30.
/30 being the good.
/was here before them.
/bring it.


Remember when they wouldn't pick you up if you smelled like booze, or wanted to transport booze in the cab because of their religious beliefs? Good times, good times.

In Guatemala City we were told to only use call taxis as there had been a rash of murder-robberies where criminals dressed up a car as a fake taxi, picked up a load of unsuspecting tourists and drove them into a garage somewhere where they were robbed and murdered.

superdude72: You have to hand it to London taxi drivers: taking a low-skill job and raising the barriers to entry to the levels enjoyed by the skilled professions. Nice racket they have going there! snip.

I heard from a cabbie friend that the Knowledge is equivalent to doing a degree. i think I believe it.

Badfysh: superdude72: You have to hand it to London taxi drivers: taking a low-skill job and raising the barriers to entry to the levels enjoyed by the skilled professions. Nice racket they have going there! snip.

I heard from a cabbie friend that the Knowledge is equivalent to doing a degree. i think I believe it.

We spent two weeks in London a 3-4 years back. The most important thing we did was buy "London A to Z". Every street is in it. EVERY street. Big deal, you say, it's a bunch of maps. Yes. but they are maps of London. If you haven't walked in London you don't understand. Place is farking maze. Streets, named streets mind you, intersect, wander off, veer over here or or over there, convert to sidewalks and back, make loop-de-loops...Every old cowpath and farmer's trail has become a paved street. You get used to it, but unless you've been there you have no clue, none, as to how convoluted it is.

So yeah, the cabbies need to know a LOT to do a good job without getting direction or driving with a map on their face.

Knows something about cabbies.

Fissile: In London you pay a lot of money by get decent service. It's not the same thing at all.

Cabs aren't THAT expensive in London, bearing in mind the price of tube tickets (quite high).

/most expensive black cab ride I ever had was about £200 - had to take a crew member home from hospital in London out to Welwyn and then carry on home. The driver said to me "I've heard rumours of people getting jobs like these, but I've never actually had a trip like this myself".
//expenses.

I would tell you all about cabbies in San Francisco, but in the four years I've lived here I've never actually been able to get one to stop for me. And I'm a non-threatening white male! I've been told that SF has quotas on the number of cabs, and that quota is apparently no more than 5 at any given time.

I've learned to love the MUNI. And walking.

TheYeti: Worst cab drivers: Washington, DC
Best cab drivers: Singapore
Most terrifying: Buenos Aires or anywhere in Colombia

Though, from what I understand a lot of other places in Asia are insane, but I can't claim personal experience.

Hong Kong was pretty nuts.
The best cab ride I ever had was in New York in '03, on a weekend vacation. We hired a guy named Peter Franklin, known as the "Gabby Cabbie". He has lived there all his life, knows the city like the back of his hand, and has an entertaining story or two about the places we visited. For a flat fee, he was like a chauffeur and took us to all the major attractions. No worries, no driving in traffic, and no parking headaches.

Most other places are hit-or-miss, but I swear Houston has uniformly the worst farking cabbies in the US. They have GPSes but can't operate them, so you will have to pull out your own smartphone or use their shiatty paper map or skanked up, 8-year old magellan to find your destination. They are from somewhere in Africa but won't admit it even if you're just making conversation. English is a low priority 3rd language for them. Cell phone use is common. You will eventually have to look for the steet sign yourself and YELL for them to turn and stop. They will then try to dick around while the meter runs and put extra surcharges ($8 "nighttime fee") on. If you argue about it they'll act like you stabbed them right in the gut. One I called ahead for to take me to the airport took 45 minutes to arrive, after saying it would be 10. He actually called me twice saying he was 'almost there' to tell me not to call another cab. What a joke.

One guy driving me almost turned _onto the freakin light rail tracks_ in midtown, I had to explain the one way streets and how to get where we were going, and then when I politely asked how long he'd been in Houston he got all mad and yelled that he'd been driving taxis there for 6 years and never stopped glaring at me as if I had genocided his whole country. I seriously thought he was going to spit on me.

Do yourself a favor and rent a car, or if you're flying into IAH and staying downtown just take the express bus, it's comfortable and dirt cheap.

I've never had any cab experiences in large cities, and these stories are making me glad I haven't. I always take public where I can. Grateful for the decent cabs where I live as I don't drive. Green Cab FTW. Clean, know where they're going, don't try to rip you off and they drive hybrids. As long as I stick with them, it's all good. A lot of people are getting licences and slapping a phone number on the side of their cars when they can't find a job. They scare me.

Pert: Fissile: In London you pay a lot of money by get decent service. It's not the same thing at all.

Cabs aren't THAT expensive in London, bearing in mind the price of tube tickets (quite high).



Get an oyster card and the tube is pretty reasonable.

Rusty Shackleford: [i.telegraph.co.uk image 460x288]

"'Ad that bloody Marcus Aurielius in the back o' me cab, once. Bloody wanker tried to pay me in Scottish banknotes! Laugh was on 'im, though. Dropped 'im at Gatwick instead of Heafrow. Berkley 'Unt, 'e was."

Awesome

TheYeti: Though, from what I understand a lot of other places in Asia are insane

You haven't lived until you've bombed down Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok during rush hour on a motorbike taxi with your elbows clipping wingmirrors as you weave through the traffic. It's especially fun after a heavy afternoon rainstorm because the driver has been hunkered down, necking Mekhong and possibly popping some yaa baa while it lasts.