You can tell a lot about a city by its taxis. New York's have to be seen to be believed. In the two weeks I spent there, I took a taxi whose driver's only words to me were: 'The doors are broken. Climb in through the window.' In the taxi I found a large insect sitting on the seat beside me. Fortunately it appeared to be dead.
Tokyo's taxis are clean, and their doors open for you. The drivers wear white gloves, but they don't always know how to get to where you want to go. Many seem to be more interested in listening to the baseball on the radio than driving their taxi.
London's taxis have doors that open, but the passenger has to open them. The black cabs have a lot of space, and you can trust their drivers to be honest. They will take you where you want to go by the shortest possible route. If they do not, you can report them to the police who will take away their licence.
One day last summer I took a taxi in London. On the glass wall between the driver and me there was his licence and a green badge.
'That? That's my green badge. I don't suppose you know what that means, do you? It means I can take you anywhere in London, not just the centre but the suburbs too.'
'How do you get a Green Badge? Is there a school for cabbies?'
'No, there's no school as such. You study on your own. But they do test you, and they are strict. On average only six people of every hundred who apply get their licence.'
'How do you learn all the street names in London? You must have a memory like an elephant.'
'Most people go round London on a motorbike, learning the street names in one area at a time. You also learn which streets are one-way, and where the short cuts are which you need to know to avoid traffic jams. You get tested regularly, but they aren't called tests, they're called appearances. It's not a paper test you take. You appear before an examiner, and have an interview face to face. The examiner will be as rude as he can, but you've got to keep calm. Taxi drivers must not only know every street in London, they must also be able to deal with all kinds of passengers. If you get angry when the examiner is rude, you fail.'
'How long does it take to learn the whole of London?'
'The number of appearances a driver makes depends on how well he does. At first you get tested every 48 days; once you have passed the first tests, you then appear before the examiner every 28 days, then every fortnight, then every week. When you have passed all your appearances, you attend an intensive two-week course to learn where all the theatres and museums are. Finally you take a special driving test. You mustn't brake suddenly or your passengers will fly out of their seats. You've always got to be careful, watching what the other drivers on the road are doing. The examiners always try to trick you, asking you to do things you're not allowed to do. They tell you to stop on a corner, or on the top of a hill, or on some double-yellow lines. Whatever they tell you to do, you mustn't break the law. You can only fail the test once. If you fail it twice, you'll never be a London cabbie.'