Around The Taxi Blogosphere

Here are some taxi sites, articles, blog posts, et-cetera, worth looking at:

Around New York City there are many pushing for stronger support of public transportation and less support for the automobile. The thought being, if more funds were directed away from supporting the auto and towards rapid transit, then the city would have less traffic and even better accessibility. I found this quote about Sydney, Australia very encouraging for both mass transit buffs and taxi drivers alike: 

"Sydney is a continuously growing city. With restraint in car parking supply and rise in petrol prices people are less inclined to drive around the CBD. Add the growth of business activities and the strictly enforced control on the curbside and it is not hard to work out that taxi trips within the city are bound to grow." 

Also said of Sydney taxis:

"Taxis make multiple journeys throughout the day, keeping up to 20 cars off the road per day. Running on LPG they are more environmentally friendly than most cars and are considered to be part of Sydney’s public transport system."

-City Weekly, Sydney Australia

After reading this, 3 points come to mind:

1. The taxicab in New York demands more respect. I wish more New Yorkers would view the taxicab as part of our diverse transit system. There was once a time where the same Transport Workers Union that supports the Metropolitan Transit Authority's subway and bus employees, came very close to representing the city's cab drivers. 
2. The taxis are becoming cleaner and greener.
3. If the city established more restrictions on parking, and dare I say it, more expensive gas taxes, there would be less traffic, more space to pick-up and drop-off customers, and a higher demand for taxicabs.
   

Everybody loves to hate the cabbie, until they need to get home reliably and safely. The article speaks about the history of the taxi and pulls it in to contemporary Sydney. Throughout the article Adrian Neylan, author of this Cablog,  is quoted several times.  

Roy of Irish Taxi was featured in a short film Confession Box, quite a while ago, but it is worth coming back to. I can't say enough about Roy's site. He updates his blog like clockwork, and he takes the time to comment on many other taxiblogs of the world, which is always appreciated by fellow blog authors like me. He's got games too!

Taxi Tales, a taxiblog out of Barrow in Furness, Cumbria, United Kingdom, was the earliest source I had for Ford's Transit Connect being pushed to the states with a concept for its use as a NYC taxicab. He's posted on local various news and such:  the sandwich boards are leaving, or have left by now. With that, a little piece of local culture has disappeared.  The pink taxi in town has caused one local to complain to the authorities? Once he had someone pay with a jar of spare change, but the craziest, was when the snake got lost in his cab, that's a two part tale: here, and, here. Also, see his picture blog: Two Steps Back.

SoCal Cabbie out of San Diego, keeps a good updated blog when he can, Taxi Lingo, was an informative post about all the taxi talk referencing driving in the industry. This was interesting to me, because us New York yellow cabbies don't take radio dispatch calls, and thus our job is completely different. 

Cabs Are For Kissing, a New York taxiblog from a driver who knows the city better than the back of his own hand. He may know you better than you know yourself. The professional cabbie gains a special intuition about people, and on occasion their little dogs too. Each and every post is quality. Psycho is a story that reminds us, no matter how much we think we got it figured out, we may still get a looney bird. And check in to his frequently updated shots at Pictures From A Taxi.

So how does a London cabby's life go? go to All In A Days Work, London and look no further. He dishes it all out, the condition of his car, how bad the wall at the train station's taxi rank wreaks of urine, and the family life.

Check on Dublin Taxi. Does this guy drive a Toyota Prius taxi!? Anyway, he'll give you the lowdown on what's up in Dublin.

 

Famous Fat Dave: The Hungry Cabbie of New York, dishes out his blog with passion and charisma. How do you define the culture of the city? There may be no better way to describe such a smorgasbord of international diversity than to use your stomach. His broad knowledge of the whole metropolitan region is gained from asking every customer he can where the best, pizza for example, might be. He's recently purchased the last Checker Marathon ever made, an '82. He'll give you a tour of the city like no other. He says he rarely drives the actual yellow cab anymore, but shoot, would you?

The King of New York Hacks, gives you a peek at the absurd, and all the interesting things one sees when they set up behind the wheel for 12 hours. When the cabbie anticipates a day of work I'll bet they never expect to see, oh, I don't know, a man with a cat on his head!? Yeah I saw him too, but The King heard his words, "Cat on the head, yes that's right Cat on the head!". That cat dude must be an insomniac. 

Read The Blank Top Chronicles. This guy isn't a driver, he's a dispatcher, with a damn popular site. These are the kind of jerks he deals with. How about a prime example of a fruitloop. People, I'm telling you, you need to explore this site deeply, you'll be laughing all day long!

Well that concludes this post of recommendations and over all kissassary, yeah I know its not a word...... yet.