TAXIS - AN ESSENTIAL PART OF OUR HERITAGE from ferozali's blog

advertisement

 

Taxis are an important part of every town and city in the world. In fact, in many places, they provide the local colour as well as an invaluable service. In America, the ubiquitous yellow cab appeared in the early part of the last century and became a symbol of the American dream; of a job that discriminated against no man (or woman) and service loved and hated in equal measures by the entire population! In England we have the iconic black cab, successor to the eighteenth century Hackney carriage, and a traditional symbol of safety and reliability. Qualifying as a driver of a black cab meant learning 'the knowledge' or knowing every back and side street in London - a process that could take up to four years.

 

Whilst yellow taxis and black cabs started in the capital cities, they soon proliferated the streets of most major towns and cities of each country. Their drivers were smart and sassy. Ask them a question about anything and they would provide an answer before you could blink.

 

Taxis are so much a part of modern life that one might be forgiven for thinking of them as a modern invention. In fact taxis existed in Roman times, operating an ingenious system to calculate the cost of the journey by a mechanism that released balls periodically at the turn of the axle. At the journey's end, the passenger paid according to the number of balls accumulated. It is easy to  Taxi hinchleywood see from this how the modern taximeter originated.

 

A taxi journey forms an essential part of every foreign holiday and whether we step into a black cab or yellow cab, a hand or bicycle driven rickshaw or a gliding water taxi, we place our trust in the knowledgeable men and women in charge of these vehicles to deliver us safely and quickly from point A to point B. Love them or hate them, there is no denying that taxis are an essential part of our heritage.

 


Share:
Previous post     
     Next post
     Blog home

The Wall

No comments
You need to sign in to comment
advertisement