All You Wanted to Know About Taxis
Posted in Education on January 22nd, 2010 by admin – Be the first to comment
The taxicab gets its name from the “taximeter” which was the instrument used to measure the distance and time a vehicle has traveled. Still in use today, in a slightly more sophisticated form than its original, which was invented in 1891.
Cab comes from the horse driven carriage called a cabriolet. These were used during the 19th and 20th centuries as taxis. Cabriolet is now a term used by some car manufacturers to describe convertibles. The carriage had a soft roof that could be folded down in good weather. The last cabriolet to be licensed was in 1946, then surrendered in 1947.
In Morocco smaller taxis are used for inner city runs and are metered for such. There are also larger taxis that are used for longer journeys outside the city. These can be shared between travelers and have been known to stop and pick up other passengers on the way. It’s a great way of meeting the locals or new people.
In 1999 241 million passengers traveled in New York taxis, amounting to a total revenue of over a billion dollars. The average number of fares the average cabbie gets in a 12 hour shift is around 30, with an average fare of $6. In that 12 hours, the average mileage for a cab is a mere 180 miles, much less if the taxi works a metropolitan area.
The first motorized taxis appeared in Paris, France in 1899, then made their way to London in 1903 then New York in 1907. Since then, petrol cabs have dominated the market to this day. There are slow moves toward more environmentally friendly methods of combustion such as bio-diesel, which is slowly gaining ground here in America. In California you can get a Prius taxi if you want to do your bit to save the world.
The two-way radio first appeared in taxis in the 1940’s. It allowed better co-ordination between drivers and their dispatchers, meaning a better service for the customer. Despite leaps in other technologies, the basic mechanics of the two-way remain the same. It is illegal in many states to operate a taxi while using a cell phone, but not to use the two-way radio.
Around 26% of taxicab license applications are from immigrants from Bangladesh, India or Pakistan. Only 10% of applications were made by American born people. This is a thorny issue and one we aren’t going to touch here, suffice to say it is the opinion of many passengers that the service has suffered because of this.
On the subject of demographics, in the 1960’s around 10% of taxi drivers were women, now it’s less than 1%. We don’t really know the reasons why, but it is something that should be evened out if possible. Women passengers would feel much safer with a woman driver, not necessarily because of the driving either.
