[blackwasp]

It is well known that London taxi drivers must know by heart a lot of streets, landmarks, locations, estates, hotels and even statues across the city.

The examination to become a London cabby is possibly the most difficult test in the world — demanding years of study to memorize the labyrinthine city’s 25,000 streets and any business or landmark on them. As GPS and Uber imperil this tradition, is there an argument for learning as an end in itself?

To achieve the required standard to be licensed as an “All London” taxi driver you will need a thorough knowledge, primarily, of the area within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross. You will need to know: all the streets; housing estates; parks and open spaces; government offices and departments; financial and commercial centres; diplomatic premises; town halls; registry offices; hospitals; places of worship; sports stadiums and leisure centres; airline offices; stations; hotels; clubs; theatres; cinemas; museums; art galleries; schools; colleges and universities; police stations and headquarters buildings; civil, criminal and coroner’s courts; prisons; and places of interest to tourists. In fact, anywhere a taxi passenger might ask to be taken.

Thats not all, aspiring cabbies roam around on mopeds for 3-4 years memorising everything in the six-mile radius from Charing Cross, with around 25,000 streets.

But cabbies also need to know everything on the streets. Examiners may ask a would-be cabbie to identify the location of any restaurant in London. Any pub, any shop, any landmark, no matter how small or obscure — all are fair game. Test-takers have been asked to name the whereabouts of flower stands, of laundromats, of commemorative plaques.

Decades ago, most Knowledge boys did their runs on bicycles. Now, nearly all test-takers buy or lease motorbikes. In 2014, there are thousands of men and women plying the city’s streets on two wheels, at all hours, in all weather, doing runs and gathering points. It’s a ubiquitous London sight: a Knowledge boy on a bike, with a map or notepad strapped to his Plexiglas windscreen. When the candidate has completed his 320 Blue Book runs — and his accompanying 640 quarter-mile radii point-gathering expeditions — he will have covered the whole of central London. At which time he takes a brief written exam, proceeds to the first stage of the oral examination process, and the test begins in earnest.

Even the brains of these London taxi drivers are an interest to many.

The brains of London taxi drivers have attracted scholarly attention. Eleanor Maguire, a neuroscientist at University College London, has spent 15 years studying cabbies and Knowledge boys. She has discovered that the posterior hippocampus, the area of the brain known to be important for memory, is bigger in London taxi drivers than in most people, and that a successful Knowledge candidate’s posterior hippocampus enlarges as he progresses through the test. Maguire’s work demonstrates that the brain is capable of structural change even in adulthood. The studies also provide a scientific explanation for the experiences of Knowledge students, the majority of whom have never pursued higher education and profess shock at the amount of information they are able to assimilate and retain.

Source

[RedTerrano]

Frankly speaking this sounds like an overkill in todays world of GPS and navigation apps. How does it matter if the cabbie knows where a particular pub is located or some obscure lane? The pax would already know (in most cases) where the pub is. The navigator apps can probably provide a much optimal route than knowledge of some lesser known lanes.

Overall my impression is Meh!

[honeybee]

The one time I had to hire the famed London Cab, the cabbie asked me for the zip code of the destination and punched that into his GPS.

To be fair, it was one of the suburbs.

[TrackDay]

This is new knowledge to me. The first thing anybody hears when going to London for the first time is that the black cabs are expensive. Now I know why. This almost sounds like taking a degree. I would say even more than that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWB9NDTC-nA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sU4W36_5oiM

But how does it fare against the new age business models like Uber ? Are the Uber drivers this trained ? I am not questioning this age old traditional method or their ways. That is part of their culture and history. But it sounds to me like they are a slave to this age old method. Uber on the other hand offers the customer what they want. Maybe it's time they update their business model.

Another downside to this method. Just imagine a cabbie forgetting his Wedding anniversary or his wife's birthday. How can he tell his wife he forgot yet he remembers all the routes, pubs, avenues, shopping centers down to the public toilets and tube stations, each and every tiny detail of such a vibrant City but cant remember a simple date ?

[aargee]

Below are some discussion about London cab drivers that are atleast 2+ years old & forms an excellent FAQ

Whats the point of London taxi drivers having to pass The Knowledge test a test to equip you with the knowledge of where to go

Is it still worth studying the knowledge to become a London black cab driver whilst Uber has almost monopolized the market

How do you become a black cab driver in London

What motivates people to try to become London taxi drivers in light of Uber

How do aspiring London taxi drivers pass the Knowledge

Is it still worth studying the knowledge to become a London black cab driver whilst Uber has almost monopolized the market

Who would win a race across London England during rush hour A taxi driver with The Knowledge or an Uber driver with GPS mobile

[DWind]

The black cabs in London sure are expensive!!!

Reminds me of an incident of an office colleague of mine travelling from India; who was expected to inform her team mates about her travel plans in advance so that they can arrange a pre-booked minicab for lower price (she had to travel to Ipswich - around 90 miles out of London). She either forgot to inform or informed her team very late and sure enough there was no cab waiting outside the gate of airport. She instead hopped on to a Black cab (being used to Mumbai's Kaali-peeli) and asked to be dropped to Ipswich. The cab guy who might have thanked his stars ensured that he got his fare paid in Travellers checks - small price to pay in commission against the lumpsum. When it was time for expense reimbursement the finance team flatly refused.
Reason: Airfare to London Heathrow from Mumbai - 800 GBP. Taxi fare to Ipswich from Heathrow (inclusive of evening rush hour and traffic in M25) - 1100 GBP. Expression on the lady's face when she came to know of Finance team's refusal - priceless!!

[landcruiser123]

London, NYC, and large metro cities have an extensive taxi system to complement the public transit. This sort of taxi-medallion and knowledge test system is a regulation to limit the numbers of taxis. This is the precise reason why Uber gets so much hate. Taxi drivers spend a lot of time & money in learning the geography & getting a license whereas Uber drivers don't have to do anything of this sort.

Here is the experience of a BHPian in Australia: https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...-caffeine.html (Myself, Studies, Cabs and Caffeine)

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Frankly speaking this sounds like an overkill in todays world of GPS and navigation apps.

These regulations are many decades old. Rollback of any government system takes many years. I can't think of any other reason.

[roy_libran]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

There is, but it comes at great short-term inconvenience!

Our collective species is gradually, but surely losing a lot of our capabilities assisted by the rapid onslaught of technology. Don't get me wrong though, every species unlearns and learns to adapt to changing environmental factors or threats, but that happens over hundreds, if not thousands of years. However the scale of change now is unprecedented for us humans, all of it happening within the last 50 years, which is less than a micro-dot in evolutionary terms. This is already manifesting itself through our poor (collective) decision making, choices and short-sighted behaviors. There are already studies pointing towards changes accelerating within our brains to prioritize some and neglect other functions, losing our sense of direction, losing our physical resilience, our abilities to memorize, balance, defend etc.

This dying breed of London black cab drivers perhaps provides an excellent basis for neurological studies to understand these changes vis-a-vis the new hordes of (dumbed-down) Uber drivers.

I, for one, want our human skills and capabilities to endure, rather than a technologically and medically assisted existence rooted in convenience and desires.

[ads11]

Originally Posted by RedTerrano

Frankly speaking this sounds like an overkill in todays world of GPS and navigation apps. How does it matter if the cabbie knows where a particular pub is located or some obscure lane? The pax would already know (in most cases) where the pub is. The navigator apps can probably provide a much optimal route than knowledge of some lesser known lanes.

Overall my impression is Meh!

As a former Londoner, I can say that while it might seem anachronistic today, there are quite a few instances where a hackney cab driver with The Knowledge can come in handy.

To give you an example, Google maps might work fine for most but it let me down too often when living there. Citymapper's sterling reputation at the start pretty much came about because the team recognised the many pitfalls of GMaps and built up a following amongst locals who realised this was an app that didn't seem it was built by coders in Silicon Valley just looking at satellite images and using a contractor in a GMaps car trundling along aimlessly collecting data.. For a place like London, with constant roadworks and awful traffic in zones 1 to 3 throughout the working day and the commuter routes around rush hour, a locals knowledge comes in handy in terms of rerouting, knowing which pubs get the rush of patrons coming out of the City, etc. Sure, using the Citymapper example, the need to have that lived in knowledge of a city is steadily becoming irrelevant, but I think for the fast pace of life there, and the folks who live there (you know the types, hurling through life at a million miles an hour), the last thing they want to see is their Uber driver fumbling with their satnav and not being familiar with where exactly they're going. Furthermore, just taking a pub - there's so many with similar names. If you don't have that local context, you could find yourself in the wrong part of town with egg on your face, and all your mates laughing from the place you're meant to be. I'm always wary calling radio cabs for that reason because a third of the time, despite my reiterating the exact post code, the gentleman would go with the street address that immediately pops up on his phone, drive there and ring me from across town.

A lot of this might seem like splitting hairs but until you find yourself having been on the other end of the inconvenience of an out of town cabbie totally reliant on GMaps unwittingly marooning you, I guess it won't resonate.

All that being said however, hackney cabs aren't without their faults. A lot have developed a chip on their shoulder and that attitude can impact a journey. As others have pointed out though, dense cities like London have a well developed enough public transit matrix comprised of various systems that it's rare you'd find yourself getting a cab in the first place. But then again I was younger when I lived there (ie, mostly broke) and any cab was an option of last resort.

[ajmat]

Yes, London cabbies are expensive but when you are time-bound running from appointment to appointment, this is where they come in.

Need to run from Marble Arch to Marylebone for a meeting? Fire up Uber App, wait for Uber, get stuck in normal traffic lanes, reach with minutes to spare or a few minutes left.

Or step out, hail a cab, jump in, wheee through bus lanes or little known side streets and you are there.

Most black cabs travel are basically expensed on business. During late evenings, most of them hover around the banks awaiting fares to drop them home. Ladies prefer them since the drivers are vetted. Mini-cabs and Uber driver have not always been vetted.

[SnS_12]

Originally Posted by DWind

The black cabs in London sure are expensive!!!

Reason: Airfare to London Heathrow from Mumbai - 800 GBP. Taxi fare to Ipswich from Heathrow (inclusive of evening rush hour and traffic in M25) - 1100 GBP. Expression on the lady's face when she came to know of Finance team's refusal - priceless!!

Ouch!! She learnt a lesson by not doing her proper research on the distance to her destination and paid for it dearly. Maybe the casual attitude of not informing her colleagues in advance would be since this was a business travel and the office would take care of the expense attitude. I am sure if she was travelling for personal reasons, she would have made a dozen calls to friends, relatives to arrange her local travel. I can't stop laughing thinking about the fact that she paid GBP 1,100 (todays rate INR 1.12 lacs) to travel from London to a place which turns into a zombie town by evening as everything shuts down by 5:30 pm. I am sure this is not what she had in mind when she got the call/email from her seniors when she was told she was to travel to London for work

I have been to Ipswich only once and that too on a weekend and I travelled by train, which was a pleasant journey and not that expensive. But I as surprised when I was asked to finish my coffee quickly when I was with a few friends in the evening as the place was about to shut and this was just 5 in the evening.

The best way to travel in London for short distance is to walk (provided you're familiar with all the streets). For longer distance the Tube system works the best as the fare is fixed at 1.5 pounds and all you need is a Oyster card which can also be used on the Bus route.

I normally take the late night flight from Mumbai to arrive in London at around 7 am. Then to travel to London I normally take the Heathrow express to Paddington station and take a Black cab to Tower Bridge. Now, the Heathrow Express has to be one of the most expensive train ride in the world for the fare it charges for a 15 min journey. But in order to save time this is the faster way of doing it and also money. As, travelling directly from Heathrow to Tower Bridge in morning peak our traffic could take easily 2.5 hrs and cost you around 90+ pounds.

Alternately, since the last few years I call up the London Taxi service guys once I land and book a cab. This works cheaper then the Black cab and can come in handy if you have more than four occupants with extra luggage.

[ramgkulkarni]

I spent a year in London and a few years after travelling to London on a weekly basis. While in London, if you plan your travel on a daily basis, there is no need to take the taxis. The public transport is pehnomenal and i rarely used the black cabs while staying in London. This was in 2012/13 when uber and other ride sharing apps were very new or were non existent.

Once I started living outside of London, I started using them on a regular basis because the motorway traffic is erratic and if you get stuck in traffic, there is no gaurentee how late you would be. On one occasion, i was stuck on M3 for 6 straight hours. My office was in Holborn very close to St Paul's cathedral and i would generally get off at London Euston station and take a cab to the office. The black cabs know every nook and corner of central London. They will get you to your location with accuracy and generally are up to date with the traffic situation.

The cabs are generally run by old timers and they have seen it all. Their experience on the road is unparalleled. On the other hand, Uber is getting expensive around the world as in India. The pandemic has also hit the black cab drivers pretty hard. More than 1/5th of the taxis are temporarily or permanently out of the road.

Uber on the other hand has had its fair share of misery in London. The latest court ruling against them has not gone down well. The ruling judge said this about the tech giant. "Sadly, it seems that Uber is too big to regulate effectively, but too big to fail"

[51morris]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

It is well known that London taxi drivers must know by heart a lot of streets, landmarks, locations, estates, hotels and even statues across the city.



Attachment 2127202

They are a fascinating bunch of people, these London Black Cab drivers. I once took a black cab around Central London and had a chat with the driver along the way. It is incredible the amount of information they know about the city (at least Central London). All I had to do was just get into the cab and tell him the name of the store that I wanted to get to and off he went.

The other benefit of taking a Black Cab in London, as someone else also mentioned, is that these can travel in bus lanes. This HUGELY speeds up journey times in the traffic clogged streets of Central London.

All this aside, I have also had some dreadful experiences with Black Cab drivers. While most of them are the nicest people you will find behind the wheel, some are absolutely rude and obnoxious. I've had instances where they've tried to arm twist me into selecting the option (on the card payment device) to punch in "at least" 15% tip. While I generally tip cab drivers for the convenience they provide, demanding a tip totally puts me off.

In all, these Black Cabs are definitely icons of London. Here's a little known fact about the turning radius of the London Taxi:

Black cabs have a turning circle of only 25 feet. The reason for this is supposedly to accommodate the small roundabout at the entrance of the Savoy Hotel. This turning radius later became legally required of all London taxis. Savoy Court is also one of the only places in London where vehicles drive on the right, and it was the custom of patrons to sit behind the driver so that they would enter or exit the cab on the side facing the hotel.

Here are more interesting facts: https://londontopia.net/site-news/fe...s-might-known/

[shaheenazk]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

It is well known that London taxi drivers must know by heart a lot of streets, landmarks, locations, estates, hotels and even statues across the city.



Thats not all, aspiring cabbies roam around on mopeds for 3-4 years memorising everything in the six-mile radius from Charing Cross, with around 25,000 streets.

I wonder why. Is it a very profitable venture?

[ads11]

Originally Posted by ajmat

Or step out, hail a cab, jump in, wheee through bus lanes or little known side streets and you are there.
Ladies prefer them since the drivers are vetted. Mini-cabs and Uber driver have not always been vetted.

Really good point about the bus lanes - the fact hackney cabs can use that is a massive boon particularly in rush hour. If you can put up with it, the quickest way around London is to basically cycle but as we used to morbidly joke at uni, though the chance of getting crushed is less than on the tube at rush hour, it's still there.

Also, the vetting is similarly a big plus point that the mayors office and the taxi union used as a stick with which to beat Uber in their ongoing case.

Originally Posted by SnS_12

For longer distance the Tube system works the best as the fare is fixed at 1.5 pounds and all you need is a Oyster card which can also be used on the Bus route.

Sorry to be pedantic but Tube fares aren't fixed - they dynamically adjust based on how many zones you cross and the time of day. Bus fares however are a fixed £1.50 every time you tap in.

Oyster cards are great in the sense Transport For London (TFL) manage to collate all the various transport options onto one payments system. Besides nowadays with contactless cards, you don't really need an Oyster card anymore. A big selling point Apple made with their Watch promotions in the UK was how you can just tap the watch against the yellow payment pad at the gate and be on your way, without the rigmarole of pulling out your phone or wallet (because the last person you want to be is the one holding up the line at the entry gate. That or the ones standing on the left on the escalators).

Originally Posted by ramgkulkarni

Uber on the other hand has had its fair share of misery in London. The latest court ruling against them has not gone down well. The ruling judge said this about the tech giant. "Sadly, it seems that Uber is too big to regulate effectively, but too big to fail"

The London Vs Uber disputes become a big old political beast now, with the powerful unions weighing in. It's not just limited to London though. Prior to lockdown, there was an enormous cab strike here in Manchester too, with the hackney cab drivers parked up all along one of the main thoroughfares for a day, voicing their displeasure about the encroachment of Uber. I don't think it's as big a deal as the London one though given the fact you have major figures like Sadiq Khan involved there as well. I will say I'm on the side where this might be a boon for the Uber drivers in the sense legislation would force the company to recognise them as employees rather than contractors, thus affording them the benefits related to the former. It's part of a larger push against the perils of the gig economy so you can imagine this London case playing out longer as govt grapples with how to do this without putting off big business.