This is a legacy page. The current version is here: World of Taxis.
World of Taxis - Culture and History
Featured items
- Taxicab Numbers are a mathematical function of cubes. The numbers are difficult to compute and only six have been discovered. The series increases so rapidly that only two Taxicab Numbers can possibly appear as the numbers on real world taxicabs. They are 2 and 1729.
Taxis and San Francisco Labor History tells the story of organized labor unions in the SF taxi industry for more than 100 years.
Virtual Museum of Taximeters has lots of photos of vintage taximeters from all over the world. Ricardo Gallo, the site owner, collects photos of taximeters and also collects the real thing with over 100 meters in his collection already.
Ten Of the Best Taxis in Literature are the picks by John Mullan in the Guardian.
The Five Taxis Puzzle named "Who is going to Barker Street" challenges five cab drivers to figure out where their five drunk passengers are going. Give it a try and enjoy! If you get stumped, Norm Beattie will show you the way.
Nobody's Angel by taxi driver Jack Clark features a hard-boiled cabbie in Chicago who takes a personal interest in preventing crime.
Last Call At The Ringnose Pub by Montreal writer and taxi driver Peter Foster is a mystery story set in 2013 against a backdrop of the contraband cigarette trade.
Still Life in Moving Vehicles by Dale Konstanz includes a delightful collection of photos that focus on the superstitious and religious objects inside Bangkok taxis. Dale's book entitled 'Bangkok Taxi Talismans' will be published by River Books in 2010.
The Owl Taxi by Hulbert Footner is a full-length book published in 1921. It is a detective story centered on cabs in Manhattan. Right click to download this large PDF file, 14.5 MB, which is a photo-digitized version of the hard-cover book. Document courtesy of Norman Beattie.
Vance Thompson (1863-1925) was an American author who wrote novels, short stories, nonfiction books and journalism. He traveled widely in Europe, and between 1903 and 1908 he published five articles in Outing magazine on horse cab drivers in Paris, London, Dublin and New York and on gondoliers in Venice. Taken together the five articles form a kind of cross-cultural survey of cab driving in the twilight of the horse-drawn era. Many thanks to Norman Beattie of Winnipeg for preparing this outstanding collection of text and photos, one of the best and most interesting historical works on Taxi-Library.
Live streaming video from New York City's Taxi Talk program 10:30 pm on Friday nights; click on MNN's Channel 67. Also on the web, live-streaming Taxi Talk radio from WWRL-1600 AM on Friday afternoons between 2:30 pm and 3:00 pm New York City time.
Notes, Quotes and Anecdotes: this delightful and often hilarious collection from researcher Norman Beattie is a goldmine for speakers
The Last Cowboy: An Analysis of the Culture of a Taxi Driver by Kimberly Berry
She's No Lady: The Experience and Expression of Gender among Women Taxi Drivers, by Kimberly Berry, April 1997
The National Taxi Association represents taxi associations and individual taxi proprietors throughout England & Wales. Formerly known as the National Federation of Taxicab Associations, the NTA traces its roots back 50 years.
Brian Halpin sends a 2009 flyer inviting drivers to join the Taxi Branch of the Independent Workers' Union in Ireland. (45kb PDF)
In Scotland, Dundee Taxi Drivers provide an annual day trip for local kids. In 2009, the date is Sunday June 7. About 40 cabs are expected to participate.
Licensed Taxi Drivers' Association, London, UK.
A brief history of the London Taxi
On James Joyce, Cab Heritage and Bloomsday, contributed by Norman Beattie
1860 Interview with a London Cabby, by Charles Dickens, contributed by Norman Beattie
History of the London Taxi and Victorian Horse Cabs, high quality booklets by Shire Publications in the UK.
Shire Publications, source of books on history of the London Cab and Victorian and Edwardian Horse Cabs. [Click on "Motoring" and "Forthcoming Titles"]
Hansom Cabs on London Streets are seen throughout this 1903 video. Don Anderson suggests: "Fans of traffic history should like this video of Old London Street Scenes -- the hansom cabs are the ones with the drivers perched on the back, holding the reins over the top. Those are real cabriolets, not like those automobiles you call cabs! Cab-related scenes include cabbies watching the sides of the street for possible fares, and another cabman opens the lid on the top of the cab to talk to his passenger inside."
London taxi history, part of Jamie Owens' London taxi page
Nash's Numbers, London driver Alan Nash has crunched the numbers for just about everything. Highly recommended for drivers who are compiling listings of night spots, theaters, etc.
Taxi Blog hosted by the Elite Taxi Group for UK taxi drivers
Bill Clark's Taxi Blog comments on the UK taxi business
NetXposure, high quality historical taxi photo calendars from London driver Vince Chin
Belfast Taxi: A cast of colourful characters feature in Lee Henry's 'brilliantly researched root and branch history of taxiing in Belfast'. Published 2012 by Blackstaff Press.
Institute for Transport Studies, University of Leeds, UK
Jeremiah Ryan's Taxi Ireland, what's happening with Ireland's taxi industry, including news, Dublin rates of fare and permit prices.
Vance Thompson (1863-1925) was an American author who wrote novels, short stories, nonfiction books and journalism. He traveled widely in Europe, and between 1903 and 1908 he published five articles in Outing magazine on horse cab drivers in Paris, London, Dublin and New York and on gondoliers in Venice. Taken together the five articles form a kind of cross-cultural survey of cab driving in the twilight of the horsedrawn era. Many thanks to Norman Beattie of Winnipeg for preparing this outstanding collection of text and photos, one of the best and most interesting historical works on Taxi-L.
The delightful Femmes Cocher collection of postcards from the early 1900s celebrates the role of women in the Paris horse cab trade. Many thanks to Winnipeg librarian (and former taxicab driver) Norman Beattie for this visual treat combined with sound historical research.
Many thanks to the Union des Taxis Ruraux for links to French-language taxi sites Forum de discussion des taxis francophones, and Annuaire des taxis francophones.
Paris taxis during WWI transported troops to the front. See also an 18-second video clip of this historic moment relating to the First Battle of the Marne.
"Chemins Nocturne" and other works by Gaito Gazdanov are available in French from Editions Viviane Hamy. Justin Doherty's English translation of "Night Roads" was published by Northwestern University Press in 2009. See also Norman Beattie's web essay and photos on Gazdanov.
Portal del Taxi Europeo, personal page of M. Tomas, president of the Confederación Europea del Taxi
Taxi de Barcelona, directed to the taxi driving community in Barcelona, Spain
Idee e notizie sul mondo del Taxi, Italian taxi blog
Taxi-in-Berlin, German language page with news and links to cab services
Funk Taxi Berlin, website of the Berliner Cab Owners Association, includes versions in German and English
HalloTaxi, Hungarian language online taxi magazine
Journalist and driver Peppe Arnigne in Stockholm Sweden, relative to his work situation and his travels through south-east Asia
Dutch site Goldtimer Cars has a page on restored classic Volvos of the Classic Charity Cab Company
Norm Beattie offers a graphic history of the taxi industry in Winnipeg. This is one of the best image collections on Taxi-Library and is highly recommended!
Ms. Cab Driver, a Woman Cab Driver in Winnipeg, contributed by Norman Beattie
Continuity and Discontinuity in Canadian Cab History, by Donald. F. Davis, October 1998
Website devoted to the issues of Canadian taxi drivers
The Ballad Of George Alfred Beckett, text and recording about the murder of taxi driver Nick Marthos in 1930.
TaxiBadges.com is a historical collection of North American taxi and chauffeur badges...hundreds of photos, highly recommended.
Montréal Taxi Blog by Jean Schoeters includes a nice collection of historical images.
The Independent Servant: A Socio-Cultural Examination of the Post-War Toronto Taxi Cab Driver, 2006 doctoral dissertation by Kimberly M. Berry.
Taxi! is an hour-long documentary about Toronto taxicab drivers in the days before GPS and computerized dispatching. The 1982 film is by Barry Greenwald and is hosted on the web site of the National Film Board of Canada.
The American Memory site of the US Library of Congress has many historic taxi photos. Norm Beattie suggests using "taxi cab taxicab" as the search words, and limiting the search to "Photos and Prints."
The New York City Taxi Driver Oral History Project recorded a series of interviews with drivers. See Not Just A Job: Taxi Driver Insight and Inspiration.
Hack: Stories From a Chicago Cab by writer, artist and long-time driver Dmitry Samarov was published in 2011 by the University of Chicago Press. The book is based on his blog of the same name. See also a sampling of Dmitry's colorful art.
Lou Carter, the Singing Cab Driver of the 1950s on the blog site of WFMU.
Cab Driver, Drive By Mary's Place performed by The Mills Brothers.
Steamy Raimon has a new 90-page humor book for sale: A Very Steamy Taxi Cartoon Book.
Live streaming video from New York City's Taxi Talk program 10:30 pm on Friday nights; click on MNN's Channel 67.
Marc Zirogiannis has prepared a comprehensive manual for beginning taxi and limo drivers, The New York State Taxicab Driver's Companion
NYCabbie, See New York City through the photos of a cab driver
NY City Cab is a resource for yellow medallion cab drivers and operators, including advertised vehicles for sale and driver positions available.
A wealth of taxi research by Bruce Schaller is available at Schaller Consulting of New York, NY.
Master Cabbie school of New York City describes itself as the largest taxi driver training center in the world.
Organizer and college professor Biju Mathew's book "Taxi! Cabs and Capitalism in New York City" covers the history of the taxi industry in NYC, and the growth and successes of the NY Taxi Workers' Alliance. Published in 2005, the book is available from Amazon for about $16.
"No Guns, No Knives, No Personal Checks - The Tales of a San Francisco Cab Driver" by Larry Sager, garnered the 2007 Benjamin Franklin Award for the Best First Book (Fiction) from the Independent Publishers Marketing Association earlier this year.
Healaurdon's Taxi News from a driver in the Boston area
Edward Dalton of Providence, Rhode Island offers heart-felt views from behind the wheel in his book "Real Cab Rides;" published by Isis of Providence in 2004.
Joe Biondo's Real Seattle Taxi blog highlights his role as driver representative on two Seattle-area taxi advisory panels.
D.C. Taxi Heist is a video on YouTube that is critical of a proposed medallion plan in Washington D.C.
Trailer for the taxi movie by Jim Jarmusch, Night on Earth. Belle Peppa offers this review: The story follows five taxi drivers in their cities, LA, NYC, Rome, Paris, and Helsinki. The movie also takes place (you can imagine the world time clocks) simultaneously. The sun is going down in LA and coming up in Helsinki. Each vignette gives us a little view of the city, and a wonderful story of the transient connection between the driver and passenger. The movie is subtitled when the language spoken is not English.
Taxi Drivers Association of Austin promotes the economic liberty and interest of taxi drivers in Austin, Texas.
Support the Omaha Cab Drivers is a Facebook page dedicated to drivers' unionization campaign.
The Ultimate Taxi, Aspen Colorado
The Alliance, Las Vegas driver coalition of labor organizations
Las Vegas taxi Driver offers news, information and tips for Las Vegas taxi drivers and the riding public.
"Customers Like You Make Me Want To Go Back To Being A Hooker: The Life and Times of a Corrupt Las Vegas Taxi Cab Driver," book by Patty Noland available at www.authorhouse.com
Joni Hansen's Taxi Cab Page
Joni Hansen's Taxi Cards
Unusual taxicabs on location, photos from Joni Hansen
July 2003 taxi boycott at the San Francisco Hilton, a photo essay by Charles Rathbone
The New Deep City Press was a driver-produced publication in San Francisco. Its six issues featured industry news, photos, original art, tales of the road, poetry, social commentary and more. These four issues are posted by permission of Ralph Hoffschildt and Jesus Portillo. Scanning is courtesy of Don Anderson. The March 1976 issue is 31 pages, 6.9 MB. The Winter 1976 issue is 57 pages, 7.4 MB. The Spring 1977 issue is 59 pages, 12.8 MB. The 1978 issue number 11 is 64 pages, 24.0 MB. Scanning and archiving of the Deep City Press is an ongoing project, with the July 1976 issue preserved as individual page scans in two zipped packages: pages 1 through 25 and pages 26 through 48 which are 6.9 MB and 5.8 MB respectively. The covers of all six issues are combined here in one graphic. Ralph advises that readers are welcome to share or reprint issues for personal use but not for profit. For other uses contact Ralph Hoffschildt for permission.
San Francisco Taxicab Workers Alliance (AFL-CIO) advocates on behalf of drivers in San Francisco. United Taxicab Workers merged with SFTWA.
The headline asks: Ever See So Many Taxis All At One Time? Read about Nathan Willensky's collection of 10,000 pieces of taxi memorabila including 1,500 toy taxis. The article appeared in the New York Times, 1992.
The Spy In the Cab: The Use and Abuse of Taxicab Cameras in San Francisco by Donald Anderson (2012) examines taxi security cameras from a sociological perspective.
Abstract: "Since security cameras were first required in San Francisco taxicabs in 2003, their unfolding story has come to contain many elements familiar to Surveillance Studies: the initial introduction of new technology in the wake of a moral panic; a failure of maintenance and a lapse into unreliability; and finally a resurgence accompanied by surveillance creep. This trajectory is explored using the concept of “surveillance slack,” and the stages of slackening and tensing of taxicab camera surveillance will be considered in terms of how these have been shaped by issues of acceptability (where the line between use and abuse is drawn), of effectiveness (what the cameras are perceived to be doing), and, underlying both of these, of integration, that is, how surveillance interacts with existing lines of tension and conflict in the taxi industry."
Taxis and San Francisco Labor History: The First 100 Years. Charles Rathbone reviews the ebb and flow of organized labor's ability to influence working conditions among taxicab drivers during the 20th Century; includes historical photographs courtesy of the San Francisco Public Library.
SF Taxi Drivers' Institute, offers a course that satisfies the training requirement for a San Francisco "A-card" driver permit.
A look at the 2003 TX2 London Taxi in service in San Francisco
London Cabs in San Francisco, what's it is like to drive one of the classic London taxis in an American city by Charles Rathbone.
Early Las Vegas, Las Vegas, Nevada, as it was in times past, by taxi driver Erik Wunstell.
"Mystic Gypsy Mavericks, Dharmic Visions of a Vegas Cabbie" is the 2005 book by Las Vegas driver Tim Hollis. Read an extract from the book or contact CafePress to obtain hard copy and digital editions.
San Francisco Taxi: A 1st Week in the Zen Life... by Alex Sack in which he navigates through a 1st week in the life of a big city cabbie.
The world's longest taxi ride was arguably Charlie Heard's trip that commenced in Geelong (Victoria) Australia in 1930. Read about his grandson's re-enactment of the epic journey across the continent and back. See also a video on YouTube.
Australian Taxi Drivers Association represents drivers and their organizations.
New Zealand Taxi Federation with links to member companies
How New Zealand Handles Taxi Driver Access Denial
New South Wales Taxi Council, peak body for the NSW Taxi Industry
Victoria Transport Policy Institute, an independent research organization dedicated to developing innovative and practical solutions to transportation problems, located in Victoria, British Columbia. Tries to identify the full benefits, costs and equity impacts of alternative transportation policies and programs.
Taxi Service Improvements, by the Victoria Transport Policy Institute, Australia
Victorian Taxi Association, Australia
New South Wales Ministry of Transport
Still Life in Moving Vehicles by Dale Konstanz includes a delightful collection of photos that focus on the superstitious and religious objects inside Bangkok taxis. Dale's book entitled Thai Taxi Talismans is published by River Books.
Photos of Tokyo Roof Top Taxi Lanterns. See also Tokyo’s Vibrant, Adorable Taxi Signs Are Disappearing, Japan
PILTOP discussion group for Manila association of drivers and company managers, The Pinag-Isang Lakas ng Taksi Drayber at Operator ng Pilipinas.
Democracy Now hosts a trailer for the film Taxi To The Dark Side which is about abuses in the war on terror. The taxi in the title refers to the killing in custody of a taxi driver named Dilawar in Afghanistan. The film won the 2007 Academy Award for Documentary Feature.
Khaled Al Khamissis "Taxi, Tales of Rides" about Cairo taxi drivers is reviewed in African Writing Online and in Complete Review.
Organising in the taxi industry: The South African experience, 2003 publication of the International Labour Organization, Geneva. (2.1 MB)
Organizing in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Minibus Taxi Industry in South Africa by Jane Barrett for the International Labour Organization, Geneva 2003.
The Cab Ride, the Internet's most repeated cab driver tale, author unknown.
St. Fiacre, patron saint of cab drivers is memorialized each year on August 30
National Academy of Sciences, Transportation Research Board
Service Excellence, by Terry Smythe, Manitoba Taxicab Board, September 1990
Taking Service Seriously by Terry Smythe
Taxicab numbers are a curiosity in mathematics, a function of cubes. Unfortunately, the series grows to large numbers so rapidly that only two "taxicab numbers" (2 and 1729) could possibly be the numbers on real-world cabs.
Myths, Mysteries and Truths, a collection of short essays about the taxicab industry, by Terry Smythe over some 14 years.
Taxi Dreams, background for a PBS feature film
Portraits of Hope Garden in Transit, taxicabs beautifully decorated as therapy
Taxi Driver Professionalism, by Gord Barton
Me! - A Taxi Driver, Something to be Proud Of!, by Gord Barton
Taxi Driver Ten Commandments, by Gord Barton
"Yellow Cab" by anthropology professor Robert Leonard, is a portrait of the city he found while moonlighting as a cab driver on the streets of nighttime Albuquerque, New Mexico.
TLC Magazine, New York City trade publication.
Chicago Dispatcher, online version of hard copy monthly newsletter for Chicago area drivers.
96.5 Inner FM Taxi Show, hosted by Melbourne driver David Gawthorn
TaxiMagazin for drivers in Germany
Call Sign, in-house journal of Dial-A-Cab, London, UK
TaxiNews online edition of Toronto Taxi News, edited by John Duffy
The Taxicab, Limousine and Paratransit Association has multiple taxi publications.
Taxi-List, international email discussion group with daily news and views for industry participants, successor to the original TAXI-L email list
Gaito Gazdanov's Paris
Gaito Gazdanov (in the photo at left, 1930s) was a Russian emigre who drove a taxi in Paris from 1928 to 1952. During that time, he wrote seven of his nine novels.
Gazdanov's novel Nochnye dorogi (Night Roads) draws heavily on his life as a taxi driver. Originally titled Nochnaia doroga (Night Road) it was serialized in the emigre journal Sovremennye zapiski in 1939-1940. It did not appear as a book until 1952.
The novel was translated to French by Elena Balzanno (Chemins Nocturnes: Viviane Hamy, 1991). An English translation is now available.
Click here for photos and selections translated to English from French by Norman Beattie.
Many thanks to Justin Doherty of Trinity College, Dublin for his recent translation of Gazdanov's Night Roads from Russian to English. Gazdanov conveys his readers to 1930s Paris and introduces us to the city's late night characters. Night Roads is a great read, and is available from Northwestern University Press.
Srinivasa Ramanujan, a mathematician who is associated with Taxicab Numbers.
Murder Lost To Time: The True Story of One of Canada's Oldest Unsolved Murders
This June 2017 book recounts a relative's determined search for answers a century after the fact, and a taxi driver's dangerous association with criminals in Prohibition-era Canada. Available through Amazon.
Henry J. Kaiser presenting Kaiser-Frazer car to veteran owned and operated G.I. Taxi company, 1948. More at Kaiser on veteran employment and benefits..
Drivers returning to work at the end of a strike, 1949
Vintage meter from Uruguay courtesy of Virtual Museum of Taximeters
Drivers and friends pose for the camera at City Cab in San Francisco, 1976.
From the New Deep City Press in the USA section below.
Nobody's Angel by taxi driver Jack Clark
UK and Europe
The different sections of the NTA logo represent the different nations
that the association represents: top left is the English National
Flower; top right is the Irish emblem of the shamrock; bottom left
is the Scottish Thistle; and bottom right is the Welsh leek.
The association's motto "ubique" means "everywhere."
June 16 is Bloomsday. Spend a few minutes getting up to speed on the theme of cabs and cab drivers in "Ulysses" by James Joyce. This is another delightful collection of images and text from Norm Beattie. He captures the spirit of June 16, 1904 when Joyce's character Leopold Bloom took his long walk through the city of Dublin in Ireland.
A 1920s coal-gas powered taxicab operated by John Lee Automobile Engineers in Keighley, England. The bag atop the vehicle stored sufficient fuel for 15 miles of driving. Fast forward to 2007...according to an article in The Conservative, more than 1000 taxicabs in the Chinese city of Fuxin have switched from gasoline to compressed coal-based methane (CBM) fuel.
A male passenger makes a ribald suggestion to the lady horse cab driver.Postcard from the Femmes Cocher collection gathered by Norman Beattie. Beattie's authoritative discussion of the times and lives of the women adds a dimension of meaningful narrative to the fascinating collection of images from the last days of horse-drawn taxis and the dawn of the automobile age. The current work is an expanded revision of the legacy version.
A hansom cab on location for the TV movie "Sherlock Holmes and the Case of the Silk Stocking" at Somerset House in London. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Classic Volvo Duett taxicab
Punch magazine illustration from October 11, 1879
One of the 1920s Diamond Cab Staff photos gathered by Norm Beattie
Canada
Taxi driver's badge from Blind River, Ontario. Photo courtesy of Norman Beattie.
The mysterious death of Ottawa hackman Alfred Bonenfant in 1908 turned out to be accidental. Yet the story of the incident and the inquest that followed shine a light on the horse taxi trade just prior to its eclipse by automobiles. This is another excellent collection of text and photos by Canadian taxi historian Norman Beattie.
Taxi history from the 1870s to 1960s is illustrated with more than 100 photos. Text by Norman Beattie chronicles the transition from small horse-drawn liveries operating out of stables to fleets of Cadillacs, Nashs, Packards and Studebakers. Winnipeg Cab History is an enthralling read for taxi folk everywhere.
United States
James Kane came to a bad end after robbing a Chicago horse cab in 1908.
Text and historical photos recall The Cab Hold-up Affair by Norman Beattie.
"Staging Area" is one of many colorful paintings by Dmitry Samarov. See the following item.
The American Taxi - A Century of Service, published by Iconographics.
Title page logo from the 1930 book Hacking New York by Robert Hazard.
Right click the image to download the 45 MB full-length novel.
NYC taxi drivers Noah Forman and Max Cohen demonstrate in a pair of videos
how to catch 100+ green lights in a row safely and without speeding.
See also the Social Justice Movements Wiki about the NYTWA.
Philadelphia driver and activist Steve Chervenka
wrote Memoir of an Independent Contractor.
It is available as an ebook from Smashwords.
Title page from the 1921 printing of The Owl Taxi by Hulbert Footner.
Right click to download the 14.5 MB detective novel set in Manhattan.
Document courtesy of Norman Beattie.
Toy taxicabs from the collection of Cliff Lundberg
1950s poster calling for non-discrimination in the hiring of San Francisco taxicab drivers. The NNLC was founded in Detroit in 1951. It was disbanded in 1956 under pressure from the federal government. Poster by Frank Rowe. See also Docs Populi.
Mrs. Gilbert Gomez and Mrs. Carol Collins
Yellow Cab Company drivers, 1958
Photo courtesy of San Francisco Public Library
Illustrator Bill Russell featured Susan Oak on the "Taxi Driver of the Month" page of TODO magazine, which is distributed in taxicabs. See more driver illustrations at Profile Reportage. Illustration copyright by Bill Russell 2007.
American and London cabs side by side at the Luxor Cab lot in San Francisco.
Chauffeur's badge, 1924 California.
Courtesy of Bruce Carlton. See also TaxiBadges.com.
Australia and New Zealand
Taxi chic
Asia
Iranian director Jafar Panahi's film Taxi won the 2015 Golden Bear prize for best film at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.
Fat and happy Buddha image adorns the dashboard of a Bangkok taxicab. By permission of copyright holder Dale Konstanz, author of Still Life in Moving Vehicles
Africa
A Cameroonian bush taxi. Toyota minibus-taxis are the primary mode of public transport in large areas of Africa.
Variety
Who is going to Barker Street? Try the Five Taxis Puzzle!
The Three Stooges take a 1940s Bronx taxicab on a trip out west.
A wheelchair accessible bicycle rickshaw in India. Appropriate technology provides work for this driver and transportation for his passenger. Access Exchange International works on transportation access issues worldwide.
First day issue of a commemorative postage stamp issued by the United States Postal Service, 2002
Taxi publications
Taxicabs and taxi drivers are a frequent theme in popular culture
Yellow Cab driver's hat
[ Back to top ]