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London taxis ranked world's best; Tokyo 3rd

22 Comments

Taxi drivers in London are the best in the world because their drivers are friendly and know how to get to their destination, according to an annual survey by travel website hotels.com. Tokyo taxi drivers ranked 3rd.

The survey found that London taxis, despite being the most expensive, beat rivals across the globe to head the list for the third consecutive years, scoring 59% in votes on several categories by travelers, Reuters reports. Drivers in London must pass an examination called The Knowledge to get a taxi license.

New York's taxis came second in the list, scoring 27%, but their drivers tied with Parisian taxi drivers as the rudest, the report said, adding that New York was the easiest place to hail a cab.

Rome's taxi drivers were voted the worst in the world when it came to the quality of driving.

''Traveling by taxi is one of the first experiences that many travelers have upon arrival in a new city. In fact, the research found that cabs are by far the most popular method of traveling from the airport to their hotel,'' a spokesman for hotels.com said in a statement.

The global poll scored city based taxis for their levels of cleanliness, value, quality of driving, knowledge of the area, friendliness, safety and availability.

Tokyo taxis scored 26%, Berlin was 4th with 17% and Bangkok famed for its tuk-tuks got 14%. Madrid's taxis were ranked sixth in the poll, followed by Copenhagen and Dublin with 11% and Frankfurt and Paris with 10%, according to Reuters.

Taxis in Sydney scored badly in the areas of value for money, availability and knowledge of the area.

© News reports

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

22 Comments
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Compared to many countries, US taxis rank pretty low. A majority of them are hand-me-down recycled police cruisers that are barely street legal, with drivers a majority of the time are immigrants who speak very little language of the land, English. At least in Japan, the cabs are clean, safely maintained, driven by crisply dressed drivers who are fluent in the language of the land. One disadvantage of Japanese cabs, though not the direct fault of the cabs, is that Japan does not employ a street address system like the US. Thus an idiot can usually find a location by entering an address in the navigation system. However, for Japan, so long as I have a phone number of the business location I am going to, the location pops up on the nav even without an address. Almost never had any problems using a cab in Japan due to that fact.

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I just want to say, if you take a taxi in Mexico be very, very careful, at night women should not take taxis by themselves, I tell this to my Japanese female students, to warn them of being raped or worse.

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after 12 yers of livng in Sydney, their taxis rank low in my opinion, I recenty went back to Sydney with a business group from Japan, we arranged 4 taxis to take Japanese group from a Circular Quay hotel to World square for a breakfast meeting, 2 taxis went direct while the other 2 took the opportunity to go via kings cross & oxford street and charge double of the direct taxi. My questioning was met with a blank look and the cab speed off.....

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But you could eat off a Tokyo taxi, they are so clean.

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Compared to other countries I've been to Japanese Taxis are the worst. Sure they are nice, and polite, and clean, and safe, but I've only met one or two drivers that actually acted like time or money was important. That others took their sweet time, tried to use the opportunity to speak English, didn't make any efforts to change lanes when a opening came up, etc.

I'd say Taiwan taxis get you there the quickest with the most haste. Motorcycle taxis in bangkok are terrifying, but I'm glad I tried one once.

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I wish the taxis everywhere were like New York. Touchscreen computers with the weather, GPS maps and TV, plus several payment options.

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New York drivers are friendly when you give them a fist bump.

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First trip to Japan: taxi from TCAT to a business hotel in Kayaba-cho, I had to draw a map (after giving the driver the name and address of the hotel - written in Japanese). Lucky I did my homework.

Second trip to Japan: taxi from Tokyo Station to same business hotel. I gave the driver the name and address written in Japanese. He plugged it into his GPS, no problem.

Also second trip to Japan: taxi from Himeji Station to a hotel less than a click from the station. I had a rough knowledge of where the hotel was in relation to the station, but the driver clearly didn't. We were all over the place. To his credit, the driver shut off the meter and called in for help. Turns out the hotel had changed names not too long before. Still, I'd given him the name and address, written in Japanese. And Himeji ain't that big.

Rudeness was never a factor, due to the fact that I know only a few words of Japanese and the drivers didn't speak English.

Given all of the above, I'd still rather ride in a taxi anwhere in Japan than in NYC. In Japan, the ride is always calm. In NYC, it's always... interesting.

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and the safest ?

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He also said that a large proportion of the London drivers are ex-police.

True - a lot of ex-service men take the Knowledge as well.

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Taxis in Sydney scored badly in the areas of value for money, availability and knowledge of the area.

Well duh. They also get negative points for rudeness and lack of knowledge and/or ignorance about deodorant. Pretty much all Australian cab's suck from my experience but Melbourne's were the absolute rudest.

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...adding that New York was the easiest place to hail a cab.

You have got to be kidding me. May be easy at the airport, but whoever wrote this report has evidently never stood on a cold NYC street corner for ever and a day waiting for a cab or had to fight off another New Yorker for it when it arrives.

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I think London cabies are lovely and most are terribly sweet. To those who are thinking about visiting London, please, please dont confuse the ghastly mini cabs with licensed hackney carriages. Some of those beastly mini cab drovers and uninsured and dont know their way around at all and they may even try to tip you off and be horrible and threatening.

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So is London really more expensive than Tokyo? At least the London cabbies know the roads. More often than not, I've had to tell the Japanese drivers where to go. And still the ride costs an arm and a leg. Hong Kong and China are pretty cheap and they know the roads, but the latter may involve a car crash.

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My Uncle has recently qualified as a London cabbie; he is ex-police, and says passing the Knowledge test is really difficult.

He also said that a large proportion of the London drivers are ex-police.

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London cabbies pride themselves on having 'The Knowledge', i.e. where things are, down to the most obscure streets, and the best ways to get from A to B. Research has shown that their brains enlarge in the areas thought to deal with navigation as a result.

See: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/677048.stm

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Japanese taxi drivers can be pretty useless. Unless the destination is a station or a well known place, I've lost count of the times when I've had to direct them to where I want to go.

London taxi drivers are the best, it's like they have car-navi in their heads.

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i assume sydney taxi drivers ranked towards the bottom...

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Taxi drivers in London are the best in the world because their drivers are friendly and know how to get to their destination, according to an annual survey by travel website hotels.com. Tokyo taxi drivers ranked 5th.

...because their drivers are polite but

have no clue how to get to their destination.

cause sidewalk obstructions by opening their auto-doors on the sidewalk, or into moving traffic when the taxis are not parked

double park at restrooms
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London Taxis are the most expensive???

How the hell did they come up with this fact? Tokyo taxis are WAY more expensive.

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Taxi drivers all over the world are the most dangerous road participants.

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Taxis have got to be the most inefficient form of transportation in the world. People should call the taxi company and wait a few minutes to pick them up instead of having all these taxis with no passengers driving around wasting gasoline and clogging the streets. That would also eliminate having these buffoons standing in the middle of the street hailing down cabs and having the cabs block traffic while they get in.

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