Taxicabs
By Taylor

Have you ever wondered, “What is a taxicab?”  The definition of “taxi” is a motorized vehicle that transports passengers between places of their choice. A taxicab is sometimes called a taxi, cab, or hack.  Passengers have to pay according to the total mileage of their trip.  This is called a taxi “fare”.  A person can call for a taxicab on the telephone or taxicabs are “hailed.” When a cab is hailed, people on the street call out to get the driver’s attention, as the taxicab drives by.  Today, motorized vehicles provide taxi service, but hundreds of years ago, human and animal-powered vehicles were used to transport people around town.

Taxis look different in different parts of the world. In the United States most taxis are yellow in color.  In London, England they are called hackney carriages and are often black.  In Hong Kong, there are three different kinds of taxis. Each kind is painted in a different color depending on the part of the territory that it serves.

People around the world have been using things to move others around since ancient Egyptian times.  “Sedan” chairs were used in Egypt to carry pharaohs and queens through the cities of Egypt centuries ago.  A sedan chair is a chair surrounded by decorated curtains or walls, and it had poles attached to the bottom so servants could lift the chairs off the ground.  During the 1600’s in Europe, sedan chairs were used to move ordinary people through the narrow streets.  They became very popular by the middle 1600’s.  In London, England, each sedan was assigned a number, or license plate, and each “driver” needed to have a license to carry people around.  By the middle 1700’s, sedan chairs were also used in the United States.  Benjamin Franklin even used a sedan chair until the late 1700’s.  Unfortunately for the rider, sedans were slow and had a bumpy ride.  By the late 1800’s, sedans were replaced by the faster ways of a taxi-type of transportation, called the rickshaw.

A rickshaw is a cart with two wheels, pulled by a human “driver.”  The rickshaw can carry one to two people, depending on how strong the driver is.  The first rickshaw was actually used in India, though most people think of the rickshaw being used only in Asian countries.   

By the time the 19^th century was over, the automobile had poured throughout the United States of America.  Soon afterwards, taxicabs started taking the place of horse-drawn carriages to transport people throughout the cities.  By 1899, there were nearly 100 battery-powered taxicabs roaming around the streets of New York City, New York.

During the 1950’s, taxicabs had become an important part of city travel.  Approximately 12,000 taxicabs were on the roads of New York City alone.  People also used buses, trains and ferries to get them where they wanted to go, but the taxicab was the most popular way to get around the city.  Water taxis are another way to move people across water.  They are popular in cities in Florida, Texas and Oklahoma.  Other names for a water taxi are “water shuttles” and “river taxis”.

Citations

Online Resources

"Canadian Driver." Canadian Driver: A brief history of the London taxi. <http://www.canadiandriver.com/articles/mj/taxi. html>. 

"Facts & Figures." PBS - Taxi Dreams - Facts & Figures. 20 December 2004. <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/taxidreams/data/index.html>.

"NYC Taxi Cabs."  New York City Taxi Cabs.  17 December 2004.  <http://www.ny.com/transportation/taxis/>.

"Taxi History." PBS - Taxi Dreams - Taxi History. 17 December 2004.  <http://www.pbs.org/wnet/taxidreams/history/history_2.html>.

"Taxicab."  Taxicab - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  20 December 2004.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taxicab>.

Images

Image of animated taxi in upper left corner of page is original artwork created by group member, Leo.

Permission to use photographs of London black cab and Hong Kong red cab is granted  under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>.

Photograph of yellow cabs in New York City has been released into the public domain from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia.  <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page>.