London taxis voted best in 30-country survey; Bangkok No 8
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Taxi services in Bangkok, Singapore and Bogota have tied for eighth place in a global survey by Hotels.com, with 3 per cent of the votes.
In the survey released early this month, which covered 30 countries, London’s iconic black cabs won nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of the votes, followed by New York (10 per cent), Tokyo (9 per cent) and Berlin (5 per cent). Jointly ranked fifth with 4 per cent of the votes are Amsterdam, Madrid and Mexico City. Jointly ranked
ninth with 3 per cent are Las Vegas, Vancouver and Mumbai.
“Six years running and London cabs are still leading the pack when it comes to travel – it’s great to see. Our iconic black hackney carriages and their well-informed cabbies can pride themselves on being globally recognised for their expert knowledge and quality of driving; maybe next year we can top the list for all categories,” said Alison Couper, senior director of communications of Hotels.com UK.
There are seven criteria to determine the quality of taxi services – safety, value, knowledge of area, availability, quality of driving, cleanliness, and friendliness.
New York City and Bangkok taxis tied in terms of value for money (20 per cent), though the latter did not quite make the overall top five this year. New York’s recognisable yellow taxis grabbed the top spot when it came to availability (23 per cent), and will likely maintain this ranking in the coming years thank to the introduction of thousands of new green taxis for more widespread access to New York City’s boroughs.
London taxis were voted the best in the world for the sixth year in a row.
London topped the list across five of the seven categories, including cleanliness (23 per cent), knowledge of the area (27 per cent) and quality of driving (30 per cent). While London cabs were also voted top for friendliness (23 per cent), it was this category that was deemed the least important to travellers, meaning London’s friendly cabbies could put off some passengers.
Safety proved to be the No 1 priority for travellers, and London also topped the list for safest drivers with almost a quarter of the votes.
