Mobile Weblog Post 2004-08-11 (53)
Posted on 11 Aug 2004 in Daily
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Mystery solved! You see lots of these little motor bikes with a tall clipboard attached to the handle bars zipping all over London. You’d think they were courier drivers, except they never have parcels or a place to store them. Turns out these are hopeful London cabbies doing their practical training and tests navigating the streets of London. Presumably the clipboards show a list of destinations they need to get to in order to pass a stage of the apparently rigorous London black cab license.
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tony
14. Aug, 2004
Title: no destinations
There’s no destinations on their clipboards. Just single pages of the A-Z. They learn every in and out of every lane in London. They normally spend a week on each page. There’s 96 pages in my 1996 version of the A-Z. The study of London by it’s street names is called “the knowledge.” I did courier work over there for two and a half years and I’d fancy myself as a black cabbie. I told an ex-black cab driver that once and he pissed himself laughing at me. Cab driving is taken seriously if want to drive a black cab. If only driving a cab was taken seriously by some of the idiots I have to deal with here in Melbourne!
anthonyjhicks.com
17. Aug, 2004
Title: Re: no destinations
aha! So that’s what “the knowledge” is. I’ve heard reference to this, but didn’t link it to the guys hooning around on the bikes. So they’re not actually doing a test, just learning every single square inch of London roads. I’m a big fan of Black cabs. They really are the ultimate taxi, spacious and comfortable. Beats our silly Sedan style taxi’s in Australia.
anthonyjhicks.com
17. Aug, 2004
Title: Re: Black cabs
Just an example, the other day I was watching a couple with a pram get into a black cab. No fussing around with taking the baby out and folding up the pram, they just wheeled the pram into the Black cab and then climbed in after it. Try and do that in a Sedan cab.