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LONDONER PATRIC MCGUINNESS wakes in the morning thinking about roads, goes to bed thinking about roads and shouts out road names as he passes them.
A former gang member and ex-drug addict, the 47-year-old is studying for The Knowledge of London, the notoriously difficult test drivers of iconic black taxis must pass to ply their trade.
“To be a London taxi driver. London’s finest. That’s what they’re called… Why would I not want to be a part of that?” said McGuinness, who spent many years in prison before turning his life around.
Black cabs are being squeezed by an onslaught of phone-based satellite navigation and ride-sharing apps, including the ever-more popular Uber.
They suffered a further setback earlier this month when they lost a legal challenge against Uber’s use of GPS technology to calculate fares instead of the traditional taxi meters.
City authorities are now planning regulation that would include a map-reading test for ride-sharing drivers – although ‘cabbies’ say this would still be a far cry from the stringent exams for taxi drivers.
“No one else studies anything like they do in London with the Knowledge. It’s historical and it’s renowned throughout the world,” McGuinness said.
Undeterred by the competition and the dauntingly low 20% pass rate, McGuinness studies London’s confusing maze of roads by puttering around the city on his moped with a map pinned to the windshield.
I wake up in the morning sometimes thinking about roads. I go to bed at nighttime thinking about roads. In the middle of my day wherever I am going, whenever I am on my motorbike I’ll call the road name which I am on.
‘Beat the sat nav’
The driver’s dedication is a far cry from his troubled youth and he has been in recovery for 13 years, working in drug rehabilitation and helping young offenders.
“I got into trouble with substance misuse quite young, spent a considerable amount of my life in prison. I was in a gang and all that kind of stuff.
“Since then I have done significant changes in my life,” he said.
Taxi test applicants take an average of four years to learn 320 routes – themselves made up of chains of streets, intersections and traffic circles – as well as 30,000 points of interest to pass the exam.
The routes start from central London’s Charing Cross train station, and cabbies must know all roads within a 10km radius – the distance within which horses laden with luggage would traditionally have had to stop for a rest.
The origins of the test are unclear, although various sources date the start of the gruelling exams to the latter half of the 19th century.
The Knowledge “would beat the sat nav hands down… there’s no competition,” McGuinness said.
“There’s nothing like getting in the back of a black cab and asking the driver to take me somewhere and they know you know where you’re going.”
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Half the taxi drivers in dublin these days can barely speak English never mind spell somewhere into a satnav or Google maps.. I know people give out about taxi drivers but in 20 years time there will be no Irish taxi drives left in the game.. It will be all foreign nationals using apps to get us around
@Cosmo – driving a taxi is a low-skilled job. Perfect for migrants to get a foothold in an economy. With SatNav basically anyone can do it so long as you know how to propel a vehicle. That’s the reality – your race or country you were born has no bearing on it whatsoever
Paige, it must be great living up on your little cloud looking down your nose at everyone else.
In 20 years there’ll be hardly any taxi drivers at all, there’ll be google self-driving cars. Right now most cars are sitting parked at least 22 hours per day on average. Self-driving cars on the other hand could be using this idle time to automoninously ferry their owners friends, relatives or colleagues around. “Can you send the car plz?” will be a common text message in 2035.
no thankfully it will be self-driving cars. whether or not a whingey “opinion on everything” talking artificial intelligence talking box that will stay a monologue to replicate the current Dublin diving taxi driver is unknown at this point
damm phone predict. stay =start. diving = driving
Like you are on your’s love
Self driving taxis won’t work at night in Dublin. Who’s going to wake up the passenger who fell asleep, or who’s going to clean up the vomit and urine from the seats before the next passenger gets in.. An app is well and good but if you’re in a rush and need to get somewhere in traffic who’s going to take you on a rat run down back alleys to beat the traffic.. Give out all you like about taxi drivers but 90% of passengers who regularly use taxis are quite happy to get in and talk to the driver and let him do his job.. It’s the other 10% who use taxis the odd time that give out about everything anyway that think apps are the way to go..
Yet another example of technology replacing old methods. As impressive as it is to have studied “The Knowledge”, it’s completely unnecessary these days.
Adapt or die.
Taxi drivers in London can say all they want about their ‘knowledge’ and how iconic they are but they ultimately are losing popularity simply because they are far too expensive and won’t travel to certain parts of London the later it gets. If I go for a night out in central London and need a taxi at 2am I can use Uber to call for a car to my exact location, tell the app where I need to go and will know the driver’s name, plate number, rating and exactly how much the journey will cost. At that time not only will I be hard pressed to find a black cab to take me to south London but if I do it would cost me about £40 whereas an Uber will cost me between £18 – £25 depending on which night of the week it is. I’m sorry but that’s a no brainer!
When the steam engine overtook the wind sail technology in ships, it resulted in massive improvements in wind sail technology as those invested in the technology clamored to save a dead technology.
When electric cars overtook diesel for efficiency and ecology, it resulted in massive improvements in Diesel engine efficiency until those invested in the technology had nowhere to go and had to embark on fraudulent behaviour.
This is just more of the same. If Uber doesn’t make the cab driver obsolete, self-driving cars certainly will.
The issue with black cabs in London is the extortionate prices. 7-8 minute journey to the train station in a black cab is 16 pounds. Uber is 7. If Black cab drivers, want to get some of these customers back, lower your prices.
Listened to a fascinating documentary on London taxi drivers once! They discovered they all had larger than normal hippocampus in the brain due to all the info they retained. When retired taxi drivers had MRI’s they discovered there was a notable reduction in the size of their respective hippocampus.
Made me wonder about society as a whole, we don’t have the need to remember what we used to. Addresses, phone numbers etc etc.
This is a great 2014 NY Times long-article on ‘The Knowledge’:
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/10/t-magazine/london-taxi-test-knowledge.html?_r=0
I’ve used uber here in Ireland and found no problems , in fact cars are in a lot better condition and drivers are more friendly , there’s nothing wrong with competition , move with the times
Knowledge? Last time this year when I sat in a black cab I had to google map the location cos driver had no idea. Get stuffed! Progress is here.
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