Secret green shelters that feed London’s cabbies

Re:Secret green shelters that feed London’s cabbies by dx034 on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @09:41AM (#16966952)

I appreciate that Cabbies generally know their way around the city but their preference for certain routes can be a serious disadvantage. I switched to only using Uber when going to the airport as the navigation they use steers around traffic whereas cabbies will usually use the same route they always use. At busy times, that often leads to black cab traffic jams on some side roads even though the main road would've been less congested.

And it's probably just me but I find the standard Toyota Prius more comfortable than the black cabs (esp due to engine noise and vibration). But obviously for quick trips within the cities they're still much faster than an Uber.

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Re:Secret green shelters that feed London’s cabbies by charlesdm on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @10:59AM (#16967516)

London is probably one of the few cities where I prefer taking a cab over an Uber or something else.

I can't even count the number of times where I've had Uber drivers tell me they have no clue of where they're driving (i.e. I have a better understanding of the city than them) and they used to be UPS drivers before turning to driving for Uber.

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Re:Secret green shelters that feed London’s cabbies by dogma1138 on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @11:45AM (#16968027)

The problem with black cabs is that what they consider London and what actually is London is very different. I can walk to Paddington so I don’t have that much of a problem with getting cabs but if you live outside of Zone 2 it will questionable if you can get one also getting them to go outside of the center is usually near impossible despite the fact that they aren’t allowed to decline fares.

If you are however disabled, have pets or a baby trolley you’ll likely have quite a bit of a problem with Uber et al. Black cabs are big and afaik all of them can accommodate wheelchairs.

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Re:Secret green shelters that feed London’s cabbies by detritus on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @11:40AM (#16967970)

The flipside is that Uber drivers tend not to have preferred routes or even particularly know where they're going - instead, they dutifully follow whatever their satNav tells them, despite any logical reasons not to, better shortcuts, etc.

Heck, one recalled Uber started off in the completely wrong direction, despite my protestations, getting caught in a local one-way system that took a good 20 minutes to get out of. I was not a happy bunny.

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Re:Secret green shelters that feed London’s cabbies by cjrp on Tuesday May 01, 2018 @12:07PM (#16968307)

> And it's probably just me but I find the standard Toyota Prius more comfortable than the black cabs (esp due to engine noise and vibration).

It's true, a lot of the older black cabs were loud and didn't have great suspension. I'm starting to see a few of these (http://www.theelectrictaxi.co.uk/) on the road now, which will at least be much quieter - not sure how the ride is but I'd hope it's better too.

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