Saturday, 3 December 2011

Black Cabs

All of London's iconic black cabs are wheelchair accessible.  The newer cabs have built in ramps that easily pull out of the floor and extend onto the curb, and the older cabs have ramps in the boot (or trunk).  I imagine that all manual wheelchair users, and most power chair users, can fit in the cabs (we do, even with Chazz's large power chair).  There is not a ton of headroom for power chair users, but as long as you do not have a long journey this should not be too much of an issue.

London cab drivers know where they're going, and it's almost a point of honour that they do not have to ask passengers for directions.  This is due in part because they must pass an exam called "the Knowledge" for which it apparently takes between 2-4 years to prepare (cabbies are tested on 320 routes, and there are about 25,000 streets in central London).  

One cannot overstate what a benefit it is to be able to use any black cab, and how much peace of mind comes from knowing that you will never be stranded.  Why other cities don't adopt similar taxi systems is a mystery to me.  

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