The Knowledge
September 16, 2014 3:15 AM   Subscribe

 
Strongly recommend the Jack Rosenthal TV movie.
posted by Segundus at 3:22 AM on September 16, 2014 [5 favorites]


The romanticisation of "The Knowledge" is pretty much a crock.

I live in EC1, in TFL Zone 1 - about as central London as you can reasonably get (don't be jealous, it's a shoebox and a midden) - in a building built over 200 years ago, yet more often than not, I have to give guidance to cabbies when I'm transited home.

Sometimes, yes, you do get the dyed-in-the-wool ancient cabbie, who does have The Knowledge, and will take you down tiny little rat-runs whilst the main arteries are blocked - but it's very much an exception, and not the rule in my not insignificant experience.
posted by metaxa at 3:53 AM on September 16, 2014 [11 favorites]


What they don't test you on is the rabid Thatcherism and contempt for pedestrians, cyclists and anybody else on the road.
posted by Ted Maul at 4:03 AM on September 16, 2014 [6 favorites]


I imagine a lot of the more obscure details are forgotten once the test is passed. Great article though. A few months ago we took a cab about six blocks from the Caltrain stop in San Francisco (we had a heavy, bulky shipping box full of wine plus other luggage) and were disappointed to see that the apparently licensed cab driver not only had to use a GPS but struggled to do so.
posted by exogenous at 5:34 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


And yet, Waze will route you around traffic better than any of them.

The self-driving cars, once they start talking to each other, will do better yet.
posted by leotrotsky at 5:53 AM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]


Yeah, this reads like a paid advert for the London Taxi Drivers Association. Whatever they have to do to justify charging extortionate rates when there are better and cheaper methods of getting around London.
posted by Optamystic at 6:18 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]


The whole trick of The Knowledge is that it's called The Knowledge. NYC cab drivers are required to be able to get just about anywhere, too, and more often than not are solid, at least if you're going somewhere people who take taxis tend to go. But it doesn't have a fancy name aside from WTF SERIOUSLY ITS PARK SLOPE CAN YOU NOT

(Don't get me started on the years I lived in a warehouse behind the Pathmark on Northern Blvd. in Queens. I think one of my roommates once got in an actual fistfight with a cab driver who insisted there was nothing back there, nobody lives over there, what are you even trying to pull.)
posted by Sara C. at 6:43 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


It's an interesting approach to the issue of limiting taxi drivers. From what I've read recently about the Uber vs Taxi issue a lot of US cities have incredibly expensive secondary markets for taxi medallions. Setting a ridiculously hard test, but making it completely open to everyone, does seem to provide a pretty good barrier to entry without making speculators ludicrously wealthy.

Apparently it does mean that taxi drivers become quite wealthy instead. At least they're actually the ones doing the work.

We aren't particularly far off GPS navigation being significantly superior to the knowledge though. It's not beyond possibility to have a GPS know stage doors, station entrances or shortcuts when traffic is bad. There's no reason it should take more than a few seconds to enter a destination into a GPS - anything longer and it's a UI issue rather than a fundamental flaw in the technology.

The taxi market definitely needs shaking up. If taxi drivers are earning £60k, it's an indication that there's not enough competition. However, it's something that needs careful management in crowded cities. We only need to look at other countries with under-regulated taxi markets to see that the incredibly low barriers of entry lead to dangerous driving, exploitation of drivers, unsafe vehicles and dishonest fares.
posted by leo_r at 8:19 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


The whole trick of The Knowledge is that it's called The Knowledge. NYC cab drivers are required to be able to get just about anywhere, too, and more often than not are solid, at least if you're going somewhere people who take taxis tend to go. But it doesn't have a fancy name aside from WTF SERIOUSLY ITS PARK SLOPE CAN YOU NOT

Well, but also London streets aren't neatly gridded (let alone numbered!) and even the addresses make no logical sense whatsoever.
posted by Sys Rq at 8:22 AM on September 16, 2014 [5 favorites]


The Knowledge has been discussed previously (and before that).
posted by dcormier at 8:34 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


In opposition to metaxa, living in NW6, in Tfl zone 2, I very rarely have to give cabbies any direction beyond yep, just off rd x. Sometimes when they're showing off they offer me choice of route.

During the day, I work in Central London - I'd say sometimes we would get stuck on one of the major cross street (Oxford St, Wigmore St) or on Regent St but normally we'd be cutting through the back lanes of Soho. Or steering round traffic. From chats with cabbies, they're best served by doing as many fares as possible so they have little interest in getting stuck either. Fare structures incentivise this too (fixed cost of £2.40 then incremental from there).

Vs other cities in Europe, Asia and the US, I think London cabbies are very good. They are expensive (especially vs New York) but generally good service. And I like cabbies earning good wages.
posted by eyeofthetiger at 8:50 AM on September 16, 2014 [3 favorites]


Having known a black cabbie, and having learned exactly what sort of questions they get asked, I can confirm that the test for The Knowledge is very, very tough (or at least it was around twenty years ago). How good is the average cabbie's retention of it, however, is another matter.

Black cabs are still great to ride in. The space, the sense of sitting in a little room rather than the back of a car, is really quite pleasant, especially after knee-crippling rides in NYC cabs. But the cost is ridiculous. A typical mini cab is half the price or less (although you have to be prepared for, shall we say, questionable standards of driving safety).
posted by Decani at 9:00 AM on September 16, 2014


I don't get it. They don't have GPS in London?
posted by monospace at 9:37 AM on September 16, 2014


Fun movie by the same name on the same subject. Jonathan Lynn and Nigel Hawthorne are involved, so it has to be good, right?
posted by IndigoJones at 9:47 AM on September 16, 2014


Think I maybe just pipped you on that one, Indigo.
posted by Segundus at 10:53 AM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


You couldn't pull off that sort of exam in the US. It discriminates against people with learning disabilities.
posted by Renoroc at 11:08 AM on September 16, 2014


I don't live in London but have visited for work reasons in the past and one of my little pleasures was to get a black cab from Euston to wherever (assuming the Tube wasn't an option, which was another fun thing to do because I didn't have to suffer it every day). The cabbies were always friendly and chatty and would whisk me through these tiny little streets and past these fascinating locales in the centre of the city. I got to see places I'd read about or seen on films, like Bloomsbury. And it was no good asking me the way, obviously.

Though I couldn't claim to know how the pricing worked.
posted by Martha My Dear Prudence at 11:50 AM on September 16, 2014


monospace: I don't get it. They don't have GPS in London?

I don't live in London -- I'm in Boston in the US -- but I don't want my cab driver spending the first third of my journey messing with a GPS and glancing at the road. I want him to know where I'm going and drive me there. I know the city; why shouldn't he?
posted by swerve at 12:11 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]


Think I maybe just pipped you on that one, Indigo.

No maybe about it! Totally mea culpa. On the other hand, if I missed yours, maybe others have as well, so I feel more foolish than guilty.
posted by IndigoJones at 1:01 PM on September 16, 2014


Easily deserves two mentions, so it's all good...
posted by Segundus at 2:08 PM on September 16, 2014


I haven't gotten into a cab in Boston (my old home) in the last few years without having to explicitly guide the cabbie where I wanted to go. Sometimes when even I wasn't sure I had to hand them my phone with the Google Maps instructions on it (because they can't be bothered to use their own GPS units).

Have taken lots of cabs in London. Never a problem. Even if they don't truly have The Knowledge they sure have More Knowledge.
posted by olinerd at 2:18 PM on September 16, 2014 [2 favorites]


The Knowledge pre-dates GPS, and for those not old enough to remember the Days Before Addison Lee the options were 1) black cab, which cost more than your entire week's food budget but was fast and painless, 2) minicab driver who needed turn-by-turn directions, would never have heard of Waterloo Station, and who would lure you in with cheap fares then lock the doors and demand all your money. Or 3) night buses, but they're only any good if you enjoy spending 4 hours waiting in the cold and rain in Trafalgar Square. I've walked home in less time than some night bus journeys.

So black cabs were pretty good if you could afford them. Ironically I never could afford them, and they therefore still seem as wildly decadent and extravagant to me as caviar.
posted by tinkletown at 4:24 PM on September 16, 2014


For me, a person familiar with the UCL hippocampus studies since my high school AP psychology course, the most interesting thing here is that London traffic is now an average of 9 miles per hour. I can walk 4 miles per hour sustainably (with regular meals), and am going to London next month. Packing my pedometer!
posted by deludingmyself at 6:38 PM on September 16, 2014


The Knowledge also figures in the Up series (7 Up, etc.), since the subject Tony, after seeing his jockey dreams fizzle, decided to become a London cabbie. Eventually he owned three homes, including a holiday place in Spain, so it didn't work out too badly for him.
posted by dhartung at 10:43 PM on September 16, 2014 [1 favorite]


NYC cab drivers are required to be able to get just about anywhere, too, and more often than not are solid, at least if you're going somewhere people who take taxis tend to go. But it doesn't have a fancy name aside from WTF SERIOUSLY ITS PARK SLOPE CAN YOU NOT

Just not true. Lived in NYC for 15 years, all of it in Manhattan, and pretty much always had to school cab drivers on the rudiments of EV and TriBeCa street navigation -- to say nothing of the regular arguments of trying to get to Brooklyn in the off hours (granted this was pre-2008, so maybe the crush of Bushwick settlers has obviated this, but the number of times I was told about a flat spare when I wanted to get to 5th Ave on Saturday in 2002?). NY cabbies are mediocre at best when it comes to even major street knowledge.
posted by 99_ at 11:55 PM on September 16, 2014


I can walk 4 miles per hour sustainably (with regular meals), and am going to London next month. Packing my pedometer!


Walking above ground in London is lovely, but do bear in mind that the underground does exist as an alternative, and is really the only way to get round the city if you don't have the time to walk (or you want to go further out, to say, Kensington and see the Museums)
posted by Cannon Fodder at 12:07 AM on September 17, 2014


The underground is hardly your only option - particularly for tourists in central London, I'd recommend the bus over the tube. It's often a more pleasant experience, with comfier seats, and gazing out the window is a great way to see the city. Get the Citymapper app for iOS and Android and you'll find live bus departure times and all the routes you need - it's not that hard to get to grips with. What's more, any travelcard (even a cheapie zone 3-4) will get you travel on any bus, anywhere in the city - so it can even be cheaper than the underground.

As for black cabs, nobody I know can afford one. They serve rich people and businesses. Fuck black cabs.
posted by Ted Maul at 2:19 AM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


dhartung, I also thought of Tony when I saw this. From what I recall though, wasn't he mortgaged to the hilt on those properties?
posted by reenum at 7:15 PM on September 17, 2014


Audiobook: Stephen Fry Does the "Knowledge". More like, "Stephen Fry uses the idea of 'The Knowledge' to discuss knowledge in general". But if you like Stephen Fry, this is the sort of thing you'll probably like.
posted by Lexica at 7:49 PM on September 17, 2014 [1 favorite]


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