Taxi Driver Online

London taxis ranked world's best, NY/Parisians the rudest

Fri Aug 6, 2010 6:26am GMT

SYDNEY (Reuters) - London taxis, with their friendly drivers who actually know where they are going, are ranked best in the world, according to an annual taxi poll.

The survey by travel website hotels.com found London taxis, despite being the most expensive, beat rivals across the globe to head the list for the third consecutive years, scoring a total of 59 percent in votes on several categories by travellers.

London taxi drivers were voted both friendliest and most knowledgeable. Drivers in the English capital must pass a rigorous examination called The Knowledge to earn their taxi licence.

New York's yellow taxis came second in the list, scoring 27 percent which was up 10 percentage points from last year even though Manhattan's cab drivers tied with Parisian taxi drivers as the rudest.

Travellers said New York had the most available taxis.

Cabbies in Rome were voted the worst drivers in the world with almost one in 10 travellers thinking the Italian capital had the world's worst taxi drivers when it came to the quality of driving.

"Travelling by taxi is one of the first experiences that many travellers have upon arrival in a new city. In fact, the research found that cabs are by far the most popular method of travelling 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.

Rounding out the top five were Tokyo with a total score of 26 percent, Berlin with 17 percent, and Bangkok famed for its tuk-tuks scoring 14 percent.

Madrid's taxis were ranked sixth in the poll, followed by Copenhagen and Dublin with 11 percent and Frankfurt and Paris with 10 percent.

Taxis in Sydney fell short of the top 10, scoring badly in the areas of value for money, availability and knowledge of the area.

The survey for hotels.com, part of the Expedia group, was conducted among over 1,900 travellers between May 11-28 this year.

Source; http://af.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnou ... TV20100806

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Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

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What a difference between 1st and 2nd in the rankings. Something else for London cabbies to be proud of

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Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

Surely to make any appraisal of cab drivers people would have to actually go to all the places?

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Bingo...!!! To my very great surprise, the Green and White VW's of Mexico City (I admit it was 6 years ago) provided among the very best service I have found in the world. 21 million people to negotiate a path through, these cars were clean, the guys knew where they were going, they were polite, most had a few words of English, wherever I went, I couldn't fault them.

Yeah.......Preston is the same

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Tuck Tucks number 5

What's food got to do with it!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.