Top five cities for taxi drivers (and the bottom end, too)

by Tom Johansmeyer on

When you step into a cab, you never know what you’re going to find. The driver could be knowledgeable, helpful, pleasant and safe. Or, he could lead you into a fender-bender in minutes. It’s a real roll of the dice, of course, though some cities’ cabbies are certainly better than others – at least that’s what hotels.com found.

In a study of world’s taxi drivers, hotels.com found that London’s are tops. But, you get what you pay for: London‘s taxis were also the most expensive. New York came in second, with 27 percent of the vote (compared to London’s overwhelming 59 percent). New York’s drivers ticked up 10 percentage points, but this still wasn’t enough to break the tie it scored with Paris for having the rudest cabbies. Rome picked up the dubious distinction of having the worst drivers.

Tokyo (26 percent), Berlin (17 percent) and Bangkok (14 percent) round out the world’s top five.

Madrid took sixth, followed by Copenhagen, Dublin, Frankfurt and Paris. So, Denmark may be happier, but Spain has better cab drivers.

Of course, there’s always one you should look out for …


[photo by Ben Fredericson via Flickr]

Don’t get ripped off by taxi drivers – International travel tip

by Gadling Staff on

Here are three tips for avoiding getting ripped off by taxi drivers in foreign countries:

1.) Before getting in a taxi that doesn’t use a meter, make sure you agree on the fare with the driver so you won’t get a surprise at the end of the ride.

2.) To avoid misunderstandings, have the hotel staff write the addresses of your destination and the hotel in the local language so you can show it to the taxi driver. Also, carry a map with the locations circled to show the driver in case they are not in a popular area.

3.) Carry bills in small denominations and change to pay; drivers often don’t carry change for large bills… or say they don’t.

Honest people still exist – NYC Cabbie returns handbag with $21,000 in cash

by Scott Carmichael on

When Bangladeshi cabbie Mukul Asadujjaman found a handbag containing $21,000 in cash, passports and jewelry in the back of his cab, he could have shrugged and handed it in to lost and found. Some cabbies may even have decided it was their lucky day, and pocketed the cash.

Mr. Asadujjaman did the best possible thing – he drove 50 miles to the original pickup address, left his phone number, and reunited the owners with their property. He wouldn’t even accept a reward, turning it down saying that as a Muslim he could not accept it.

Of course, this should serve as a reminder to anyone with that much cash, that carrying it in a handbag in a New York cab is a really bad idea.

The money belonged to an Italian family, visiting the United States, and the loss of all their money and passports would have severely screwed up their plans. Kudos to Mr. Asadujjaman, it really is refreshing to see that honest people still exist.%Gallery-67351%

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New website helps Seattle visitors share a taxi

by Katie Hammel on

Now that visitors to Seattle can hop on the light rail from Sea-Tac Airport into downtown (or take the 45-minute bus), fewer may be likely to take an expensive cab. But for those who don’t want to hassle with lugging baggage onto public transportation or who are arriving at odd hours, there is a new way to get from the airport into the city without spending the usual $40 on cab fare.

RidePenguin.com, which was just launched last week and is still in beta, promises to connect passengers looking for a cab with others who want to share. If you are interested in sharing a cab to defer costs, just log on and either search for a posted ride (rides are posted by time, origin, and destination) or post your own and invite people to share with you.

Sharing a cab would save you quite a bit of money (though not as much as taking public transportation). If you share with one other person, your fare would drop to about $20 from the airport into the city. Share with two people and it’s less than $15. Obviously, the more people who use the service, the better your odds of finding a taxi to share. When I searched recently, I only found one posted ride for the day, and it wasn’t even going into the city center.

It’s a good idea in theory…of course, you could just get in the taxi line and ask around to see if anyone is heading your way and willing to share their cab.

[via The Seattle Times]

Rome cab drivers forced to be honest

by Annie Scott on

All over the world, taxi drivers seem to love to scam tourists. Hapless visitors with no idea what a taxi from A to B should cost are so easy to drive around for an extra ten euros or so.

In New York City, they’ve made an effort to combat the problem by adding video maps in cabs (so you can see when you aren’t between your pickup point and your destination) and charging flat fees to bring people into Manhattan from the local airports. Now, in Rome, there’s a new method of keeping drivers honest afoot.

According to Reuters, Radiotaxi 3570 in Rome is “trying to improve the bad name of the city’s cabbies” by allowing visitors to pay for their ride from the airport into the city in advance, even from their home countries. You will soon be able to book online and request a driver who speaks English, German, French or Spanish, and a text message payment/reservation service is in the works, as well.

Though we’d never scoff at a trip to Rome simply because the taxi drivers have a bad reputation, this development is heartening; it shows that Rome wants and appreciates its foreign guests.

[via Reuters]