London taxis have been voted the best taxis in the world for the sixth year in a row, according to the annual global taxi survey from Hotels.com, an online accommodation-booking brand.
London received 22 percent of the votes, followed by New York City in second place with 10 percent and Tokyo in third place with 9 percent. London’s iconic black cabs won nearly a quarter of the vote in the survey, which covered 2,683 respondents across 30 countries. The survey saw Berlin reclaim its position in the top-five list, in fourth place with 5 percent, and Madrid, Mexico City and Amsterdam tied in fifth with 4 percent.
Of the 30 countries surveyed, London topped the list across five of the seven categories, including cleanliness (23 percent), knowledge of the area (27 percent) and quality of driving (30 percent). But while London cabs were also voted top for friendliness (23 percent), the category was deemed least important to travellers.
Safety remains the number one priority for travellers, and London also topped the list for safest drivers with almost a quarter of the votes.
In terms of value for money, both New York City and Bangkok taxis registered a tie at 20 percent; however the latter failed to make it to the overall top five this year. New York’s famous yellow taxis achieved the top spot when it came to availability, with 23 percent of the vote.
The global survey also found that people tended to text or email while in a cab (19 percent), while sleeping was the second most popular activity at 15 percent, followed by eating at 10 percent and kissing at 9 percent.
Nearly 53 percent of travellers would choose a taxi as the desired mode of transport from airport to hotel, while the most important feature in a taxi is WiFi (14 percent), beating both the radio and music. The biggest complaint from UK travellers was taxi drivers taking a longer route than necessary to the destination.
Alison Couper, senior director of communications for the Hotels.com brand, said, ‘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!’
