TAXIS in Japan and elsewhere

[dogsbody70]

Which country's taxis do you think are the best in terms of drivers being friendly and knowing where they are going?

[willgoestocollege]

Yeah in my opinion, us Brits have the best taxis but I prefer to drive myself.

[dogsbody70]

I haven't travelled in many countries so cannot make comparisons. London taxi drivers have to learn the KNOWLEDGE.

I wonder if other CITY taxi drivers also have to study the maps of all the roads they are likely to be asked to travel-- or do they now use the Satellite Navigation aids.

There are private taxi companies here in UK apart form those licensed by their councils. I feel sorry for those transporting late night revellers.

[Columbine]

Originally Posted by dogsbody70

I haven't travelled in many countries so cannot make comparisons. London taxi drivers have to learn the KNOWLEDGE.

I wonder if other CITY taxi drivers also have to study the maps of all the roads they are likely to be asked to travel-- or do they now use the Satellite Navigation aids.

There are private taxi companies here in UK apart form those licensed by their councils. I feel sorry for those transporting late night revellers.

Want to know something interesting about Black Cab drivers? Those who have got black cab status and have been working for a log time, say over 5 years, have much larger hippocampus' than ordinary people. The hippocampus is the part of your brain that deals in navigation, so this is one of the few proven examples we have of learning actually changing the structure of your brain quite noticeably. It's not just the whole organ either, the back of it grows but the front part is actually slightly smaller than normal. The whole function kind of shifts about to deal with the vast amount of location knowledge.

[Cheshire]

I can't say I've used taxis much at all here in Australia, but the ones I have used are pretty good. I especially once when I was in Sydney I took a taxi from the airport to where we were staying, the driver took lots of short cuts etc and knew exactly where he was going.

[WingsToDiscovery]

NYC taxi drivers are amazing. They'll always get you where you need to be, and fast. The only drawback is their aggressiveness, which can be scary if you're not used to it.

[edelweiss]

Taxis in San Francisco are only at their best if you are in and around downtown but then you better have a good reason to use one! Most downtown locals walk everywhere or take the bus unless you are dressed up or have something heavy to carry.

In the rest of the city it's hard to find a cab unless you call one and then it's so expensive to get across town. The city is only seven square miles, it should not cost $18 to get from one end to the other.

Cab drivers in NY city are awesome. Fast and cheap compared to here. I have never taken a cab in Los Angeles, you need to rent a car if you don't have one. The cost of taking taxis would be outrageous. I lived there for five years and never knew anyone who used taxis. I have taken taxis on two occasions in Tokyo. The first was a damn nightmare! He had some nerve charging us anything after getting so lost that many times going from one neighborhood to literally the next one over. The second time was after a typhoon and there was no other choice to get to Tokyo station. That was thankfully a fine ride. But I assume every driver can find Tokyo station!

[steven]

I haven't used many taxis in my life... but Japanese taxi drivers tend to not have to use navigation systems too often. However, I've noticed that a lot of them tend t be pretty cold as far as friendlyness goes. They hardly ever have an opinion on anything and are almost too polite. The ones who actually talk and carry on a conversation are great and usually funny though.

By the way, I'm not very well travelled so I've always wondered about this: do other countries have daiko service? (I'm sure the word is different, but do other countries do this too?). Daiko is a special taxi where there are two people riding in the car. When they are called, one of them will drive the customer's car home (as they are usually intoxicated) and the other one will follow. Then they will return to their base together and start all over again. I've found those guys to be pretty good at navigating... which they usually do late at night. If there is no traffic they seem to know the exact speed at which to travel to not hit any red lights too!

[Nyororin]

Originally Posted by steven

I haven't used many taxis in my life... but Japanese taxi drivers tend to not have to use navigation systems too often. However, I've noticed that a lot of them tend t be pretty cold as far as friendlyness goes. They hardly ever have an opinion on anything and are almost too polite. The ones who actually talk and carry on a conversation are great and usually funny though.

I envy your luck on the cold and polite part.
Drivers of every taxi I have ridden in while in Japan have been overly extremely friendly, and have wanted to talk and talk and talk. This is actually one of the reasons I avoid taxis as if the trip is longer than 5 minutes I am driven crazy by the desperate attempts at making conversation. It always reminds me of a tour bus driver trying to get everyone to wake up and be entertained... But if I`m taking a taxi it`s because I am late, or because there is something I need to get done during the trip so it really drives me crazy. It`s like a penalty for needing to use the service.
I don`t think it has much to do with location as I use taxis away from home much more than near it, so my taxi experiences are pretty scattered.

ETA; Recently, navigation systems seem to be pretty standard equipment - but they don`t use them as anything more than a map. If you`re going somewhere strange or difficult to pinpoint, they`ll check it on the navi and get confirmation before heading there. They don`t ever seem to actually use the navigation feature - it`s more of a digital map only. I`ve actually seen a few that were displaying data on the locations of other taxis in the company.

[steven]

Hahaha, actually I'd be a little put off if the driver had his navigation all set and it was like "turn left here", if you know what I mean. I've seen a driver check his navigation one time (that I can remember)... so I think you're totally right about how it's just like a map to look at.

I think I'm a pretty annoying person when I'm in a good mood, so sometimes I've tried striking up conversations with some drivers and they're STILL not talkative. It's like trying to get information out of a spy or something haha.

"Do you have any favorite restaurants in the area?"
*Textbook Response* "They're all quite good"
"Come on you've gotta have a favorite restaurant!"
"Hmm...."

And then I've had a couple of times where the person will give all kinds of information on the area... more than I ever wanted to know. I learned the "清水のぶたいから。。。” phrase from a taxi driver! To be honest though, most of the time they're pretty dead quiet. While normally I'd just attribute it to me being a foreigner or just a weird person or something, most of the time people go out of their way to talk to me (which my closer friends have attributed to my たれ目, which is apparently very approachable to Japanese people). Who knows though . I guess it's just the luck of the draw .

I know you said you've travelled all over Japan so it's not really a regional thing, but I'm positive I've ridden in a taxi whose driver had never driven a foreigner before, so there could be that aspect of it. I've found that the drivers in Kyoto or in the Kansai region are a little friendlier while my escapades in Nagoya or my home-turf haven't been as fun. (no offense intended to you and your location though).