Black Cab.

[Crispy]

e.g. most Edinburgh buses are 80% empty 80% of the time yet they always take up the same amount of roadspace and lash out the same volume of NO2 and Particulates. Where's the efficiency in that? Public transport is only "efficient" if it's always stufed to the gunwales.

Ah, well there's the rub. It's a vicious (or bebeficial, in the other direction) circle. The benefits of public transport are only realised when the majority of people use it. Which requires big investment, which requires (on the current playing field) high revenues, which requires either a) high prices or b) the majority of people using it.

A better idea than free taxis is a car club, like www.streetcar.co.uk - This lets you use a car when you need it, but it's just enough hassle that walking/cycling to the shops is easier. Discorage car ownership, and bus, walking, cycling and train use will rise.

 

[Guineveretoo]

I use black cabs a lot, although I try to ensure I am doing so officially, so I can claim it back from my employers.

But I also use them when, after a night out, I get to East Croydon late at night (or early in the morning!) and, in fact, this was one of the reasons that I moved here - the knowledge that there was a safe station which is open all night and always has cabs waiting is a huge advantage, I think.

 

[Cobbles]

A better idea than free taxis is a car club, like www.streetcar.co.uk - This lets you use a car when you need it, but it's just enough hassle that walking/cycling to the shops is easier. Discorage car ownership, and bus, walking, cycling and train use will rise.

Pointless - where do you find the space to park dozens of beige/vomit coloured Astras near where people want to pick them up and where do the users park them at their destination?

 

[trashpony]

Pointless - where do you find the space to park dozens of beige/vomit coloured Astras near where people want to pick them up and where do the users park them at their destination?

If you lived in London, you'd know that there are designated parking places for them close to tube stations. And you park them at the other end in exactly the same place.

So no, not pointless.

 

[Crispy]

1. They're black Golfs
2. They're parked on normal roads, roughly 10 minutes walk from each other (there are 3 or four in walking distance from my front door). Please tell me you can be bothered to walk a few hundred meters.
3. They get parked at the destination at any of the thousands of existing places where cars are normally parked.
4. Yes, you have to bring them back to where you started. As is normal with cars.

It works. I'm a member. I use it once a month, maybe less. If I owned a car, I'd use it more. I have the convenience of owning a car, but with much lower cost and I also use public transport more as a result.

 

[sir.clip]

www.streetcar.co.uk - This lets you use a car when you need it.

This is the best thing i have heard of in a while..
To discourage car ownership & to learn to share is the best step forward for the progress of the entire human race...

 

[aurora green]

This is the best thing i have heard of in a while..
To discourage car ownership & to learn to share is the best step forward for the progress of the entire human race...

I'm totally with you on that one!

 

[sir.clip]

I'm totally with you on that one!

let's elope then.

 

[aurora green]

let's elope then.

Way hay!..an offer of elopment, before 8am!
I hope the rest of the day goes as well, I've got a dole interview at 9.15...

 

[Guineveretoo]

The streetcar idea is a great one, and I know several people in London who use it, but it certainly doesn't replace the black cabs, nor even provide the same service as black cabs tend to.

Does everyone know about the "cab text home" service that the Mayor's office set up to tell us all of nearby licensed cab firms? You just text the word "home" to 60835 (you have to be within Greater London, of course) and it sends you back numbers of local firms. It doesn't always work, I have to say (sometimes, you get the number of a firm which is miles away!), but it works often enough to make it worth knowing. I particularly like to use it if I am out late at night and want to ensure I get a legal taxi!

 

[Crispy]

of course it's not a taxi replacement, but it's a darn sight better than cobbles' infinite taxis project!

Black cabs are ace, for the record. Had a lovely one the other day - really friendly driver.

 

[sir.clip]

- really friendly driver.

Did you tip the driver..........?

 

[Crispy]

Did you tip the driver..........?

yep. over the odds too. it was worth it

 

[sir.clip]

yep. over the odds too. it was worth it

...
So you where taken you for a ride then...


Strange init that taxi drivers get a tip and bus drivers do not.. all for a little bit of idle banter.

what an odd world we live in..

 

[Crispy]

*shrug*
I didn't invent the traditions.
It's hard to tip bus drivers with oyster.

 

[sir.clip]

*shrug*
I didn't invent the traditions.
It's hard to tip bus drivers with oyster.

I found out over the weekend that a modestly average cab driver makes between 25-35 grand on the cards... this is not including tips.... so if you tipped him well, think how many other folk out there tip well and multiply that up & wow theres maybe 5 grand a year tax free..
is there such thing as an honest cabbie who declares his true earnings including tips ?

I'm fucking glad I have never been in a black taxi & i'm going to keep that tradition... seems to me that alot of them lie on there tax returns... hmmm.

tis true about the oyster card. but if you had a spare quid would you tip the driver..

I also heard that chris eubank tips taxi drivers 5p....... Simply the best..!

 

[William of Walworth]

....and I know a couple of cabbies and they're not wankers.....

Several drink in my local. Most of them, are fine, one or two are quite radical politically

btw, does anyone remember the flame war in the letters page of the Grauniad about someone being racist for referring to a black cab driver?

I don't remember this. How long ago? Can scarcely believe that anyone REALLY ever believed that phrase was racist. Flame war suggests that plenty of the Guardian's readers were not that stupid and weren't afraid to contradict.

 

[Mrs Magpie]

probably about 5 years ago...it was hilarious....to be fair people who don't live in cities may not know what a black cab is.....

 

[Mrs Magpie]

I found out over the weekend that a modestly average cab driver makes between 25-35 grand on the cards...

That's working very long hours though, plus most cabbies lease their cabs which cost an enormous amount. Also they have to keep their cabs spotless at all times or they can get fined....cabbies I know don't earn this much once all their overheads are taken into account...plus do you really think the tax man doesn't get scary about cabbie's tips?

 

[Guineveretoo]

I know lots of cabbies, including several who drive black cabs, and none of them earn that much! Bus drivers are salaried, cabbies are not, and rely on fares and on tips.

 

[scifisam]

I've taken black cabs home late from town to New X and they've been no more expensive than what many mini cabs quote me.

I've had to get one from Lewisham to Bethnal Green a couple of times, latish at night, and the black cab fare was only £20 - a tenner less than the nearby min-cab firm charged me.

 

[scifisam]

That's working very long hours though, plus most cabbies lease their cabs which cost an enormous amount. Also they have to keep their cabs spotless at all times or they can get fined....cabbies I know don't earn this much once all their overheads are taken into account...plus do you really think the tax man doesn't get scary about cabbie's tips?

Agreed. The salary sounds a lot until you take into account all the fees they have to pay, which are a lot more than I as expecting (after a long chat with a cabbie recently), plus petrol and car maintenance and so on. £25k pre-tax and and pre-expenses is not good for a London wage. I'm not arguing that they should be paid more, just that they're not rolling in it.