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"If anyone could drive a cab, the profession might only barely pay a living wage, ..." That isn't the case in London, widely thought to have the best taxi serv
by rg 14y ago
"If anyone could drive a cab, the profession might only barely pay a living wage, ..."
That isn't the case in London, widely thought to have the best taxi service in the world. There, anyone can pass a demanding standard examination and having done so can drive a cab. Anyone can build a vehicle that meets a standard inspection, and once passed that vehicle can be used as a cab. No limit on the number of drivers, no limit on the number of taxis, both inspected but not limited. The result is that different drivers work different convenient hours, some full time and some part time, with larger numbers of cabs available at rush hours and other times of heavy demand. All the drivers know how to drive well, all the taxis are clean and in perfect shape, and there's always one available when you need it. This is what makes it truly possible to live better in central London without a car than with one.
All the schemes to forbid more competitors simply hand profits to taxi operators and produce poor service for taxi users. As usual, government regulations are captured by the regulated industry to exclude competitors.
- gruseom 14y agoa demanding standard examination This test is legendary. There was an interesting study done on the brains of the drivers who pass it: http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/12/08/acquiring-the-knowledge-changes-the-brains-of-london-cab-drivers/ http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/notrocketscience/2011/12/0...
- andyjsong 14y agoI wonder if GPS has downplayed the role of having to memorize the streets of London.
- 1123581321 14y agoGood question. It has not changed because of that. Drivers are supposed to be able to immediately choose routes without consulting any kind of map.
- ams6110 14y agoI would think that the experienced human driver will outperform GPS when it comes to selecting optimal routes and alternates at various times of day, dependent on moment-by-moment assessment of traffic conditions. That's just a gut feeling, no cite to back it up.
- crazygringo 14y agoThat's actually very interesting, I was unaware of that. I wonder if the very difficult examination serves to act as a natural limit on the number of taxis? Because my question is, what is the supply-and-demand reason that there are only 21,000 cabs in London, instead of, say, 50,000 or 200,000?
- nchuhoai 14y agoIsn't that just natural supply and demand at work? You will get the equilibrium when the price of the cab fare is equal to the real cost of it. There are not 50k cabs, because there are just so many guests that want a cab. Or do I misunderstood you?
- crazygringo 14y agoI basically always assumed that, in huge cities like NYC and London, because streets are a fixed resource, the only way to prevent severe congestion by cabs was by limiting the number of cabs available. In other words, that the natural economic supply-and-demand of cabs would be a number too large for the streets (or at least annoyingly large), thus the necessity of limiting them. But perhaps my assumption is wrong, and the limited number of NYC taxicab medallions has nothing to do with fear of taxi congestion.
- tolmasky 14y agoJust think through your original proposition: "too many" taxis hit the streets thus making the job not pay a living wage, the natural consequence of this would be many people giving up driving taxis for precisely this reason. Now there are less taxis, and thus the price increases. Continue this cycling and eventually you reach equilibrium -- that's precisely how it works. Notice we don't need a limit on plumbers to make sure they make a living wage.
- montitro 14y agoI think the idea was more: "too many" taxis hit the streets, and while they make a living wage, traffic doesn't move. In fact, as a taxi driver, with a time-based meter, traffic congestion may not decrease wages at all. Given the density of Manhattan, it wouldn't surprise me if there was more demand for taxis than the road system could support (I'm not saying that's true, I don't have the data, just that it's a third factor besides supply and demand).