Making fun of the driving skills of New York City taxi drivers is an easy snark. In NYC, over 80% of taxi drivers are third world men from countries which are not known for their sedate and obedient styles of driving. Since there are large numbers of brown cabbies (in 1999, 40% of cabbies were from the subcontinent, although that number has probably gone down), this easily turns into a joke about desi drivers. You know, a roll of the eyes, a hand gesture to indicate the erratic path a screeching yellow cab took, etc.
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What was that address again? Don’t worry, this is just a shortcut, Amber fort is on the way. |
It turns out, however, that riding a cab in New York is considerably safer than being in a private vehicle:
according to … [a recent] study… based on state motor vehicle records of accidents and injuries across the city… taxi and livery-cab drivers have crash rates one-third lower than drivers of other vehicles. [Link]
This is very different from what people think, but it makes sense:
The lower crash rates for cabbies are not so surprising given that taxi drivers are far more experienced than other drivers. They are behind the wheel up to 3,000 hours a year. Their driving records are scrutinized by the Taxi and Limousine Commission and auto insurance carriers. They risk losing their livelihood if they have too many crashes or get too many tickets. [Link]
They’ve also gotten safer over time, as a result of both market forces and government regulation:
… crashes declined 12 percent from 2003 to 2004, and 30 percent since 1999. These declines are attributable to the City’s strict ceilings on the number of DMV points drivers can accumulate and improved auto insurance underwriting practices. Cab drivers have also been staying in the industry longer, a significant fact given that less-experienced drivers are more crash-prone. [Link]
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Some related facts about taxi driving in the US, all from the same research group that put out the study above:
- There are almost a quarter million taxi drivers in the united states and roughly one in every eight Americans has taken a taxi or limo in the past month.
- “In 2000, 38 percent of taxi/limo drivers were immigrants, an increase from 27 percent in 1990 and 8 percent in 1970. Taxi/limo driving now has the third-highest percentage of immigrants, behind only tailors and farm laborers, among occupations with at least 50,000 workers in the U.S.”
- “Immigrant taxi and limo drivers are primarily from South Asia (6.8 percent of all drivers), the West Indies (6.7 percent) and Africa (6.3 percent).”
- “The highest proportions of immigrant drivers are found in the New York City area (82 percent of drivers are immigrants), followed by the Washington DC (62 percent), Los Angeles and Chicago (both 59 percent) and San Francisco (57 percent) metro areas.”
- “Taxi/limo driving is a remarkably large occupational category for some immigrant and gender groups…. 8 percent of Bangladeshi and 7 percent of Pakistani-born employed men in the U.S [were taxi/limo drivers in 2000]. By contrast, only 0.2% of U.S.-born employed men drive a taxi or limousine.”
- “Within New York City’s medallion taxi industry, Bangladesh has replaced Pakistan is the number one country of origin for first-time cab drivers. Of medallion taxi drivers entering the business in the last two years, 18% were born in Bangladesh, up from 10% in 1991 and 1% in 1984. This increase reflects rapid increases in Bangladeshi immigration to New York City. Fifteen percent of new taxi drivers are from Pakistan and 9 percent are from India.”
- 14% of drivers have college degrees [Link for all bullets]
My mind boggles. If you meet a random Bangladeshi man anywhere in America, there is a 1 in 12.5 chance that he’s a taxi driver.
UPDATE: I just remembered that my favorite blog banner ever involves 4 Sikh taxi drivers walking away from yellow cabs and a post-apocalyptic burning sky. It’s from Turbanhead’s blog, of course.
Related posts: Taxi-Wallahs of America, Taxi Cab Confessions , You talkin’ to me? Then who the hell else are you talkin’ to …, Cabbie hartal in Naya York, Immigrant Entrepreneurs – Cabbie bids $360K for Medallion
Makes me want to go tip a taxi driver =)
I’ve taken cabs in NYC with South Asian drivers, and they were somewhat amusing… A few weeks ago I went to Boston, got cabs from Logan to the hotel in Cambridge and back, and nearly sh*t my pants on both trips with the Indian/Pakastani drivers… their ability to have “near misses” was breathtaking. Wonder if their exhorbitant fares are based on the kind of thrill rides you pay $ for at theme parks. (Just kidding).
Almost all of the cab driver in Vancouver are of punjabi background. A white friend of mine joked about the white cab driver going extinct.
I should also add that next month I’m off to Chennai and Bangalore for 20 days. My friends promise me that between the autorickshaws and the cabs, not only will my breath be taken away, but I will have a whole new appreciation for the driving skills of my Tamil and Karnataka drivers.
Actually the demographics are even crazier : according to Biju Mathew, a huge majority (90% I think) of south asian taxi-drivers in NYC are from around 6 districts (!!) — 4 in punjab (2 in india, 2 in pakistan) and 2 in bangladesh.
Indians are the best, most highly skilled drivers I have ever known. And if the traffic in Pakistan and Bangladesh is anything like it is in India, I’d guess they’re probably in the same league.
i love getting an indian/south asian taxi driver at 4am after a night on the town in nyc, and them trying to have a discussion of ‘where in subcontinent are you/and/or your family from’… it’s quite amusing….
you coulda called this post “Driving Miss Desi”…
On the other hand, I’ve heard it’s a dangerous occupation. . .
Thanks GJ! Done.
Saheli: it is a dangerous occupation. They have occupational hazards that would prove fatal for the average driver.
All these happy statistics don’t sit too well with me having to deal with the worse of the cabbies on a daily basis in NYC. They may not cause accidents but they surely jeopardize all the other cars and people on the road all the time. And especially after I watched a cab go crazy on 49th and Madison, jump the sidewalk and mow down people this afternoon and having seen it quite a few times in Manhattan I will just disregard all these stats and continue to boycott them.
ha ha yeah… I went a couple of times and it was quite uneventful.. guess didnt meet the “right” kind
I liked NYC cabs, they were very cheap and I’d have a chat with the driver. But I agree with you JoAT – whilst they might not be in that many accidents according to these stats, cabbies fuck everybody else up whether in London or New York.
Divya I’m not so sure you can jump to that conclusion so quickly. We were having this exact conversation a few weeks ago as over the last few weeks my friends and I have driven in three new countries. In total I’ve racked up quite a few nations and I can safely say that Indian drivers are horrific. But it’s unfair to compare drivers in India with America or the UK. More useful is how desi drivers fare when they come to these countries and I still think they’re pretty poor. I don’t know how you’re quantifying good driving though – for me it includes manners and that’s where they fall down, only trumped by Arabs. Neither Arabs nor Indians can park that well either. Who are the world’s best drivers? Probably some Scandinavian country…in terms of safety. Guessing.
In general I think New Yorkers are fairly bad. I seemed to make cicatrix laugh when I said that I expected New York drivers to be better behaved. However, outside New York I thought most were fine. LA’s aggression level is more like London and I can deal with that, although I swore at people less because I didn’t want to get shot. American cars are truly, truly woeful but I think most American drivers were quite good, especially out of the big cities.
Ha! New York isn’t even America’s worst driving. IMHO, Boston drivers are more egregious. And it’s funny that you compare to London – many NYers look to London’s taxis as an example – clean, (white) drivers with an encyclopedic knowledge of the city, etc. You’re saying that not only are they more expensive (which we would never stand for) but also still disrupt traffic just as much.
Oh mate – I got in a London cab once with an ad in the back saying “Relax, you’re being driven by one of the world’s best drivers”. My drink came out of my nose.
Yes, London cabs are spacious, have TVs (sometimes) and gizmos and they’re clean. But extortionate. I’d rather have a lousy cheap car. The Knowledge – the test London cabbies have to take before being licensed – is amazing. Cabbies hippocampi have been studied as they memorise so much, so that is certainly admirable. But it may be phased out with sat-nav. As for their driving, don’t get me started. But we have a lot of taxi lanes here, so they stay out of hair a bit more these days. The main thing is, I feel supreme confidence being an aggressive obnoxious driver here (which makes driving more fun), whereas in the places I’ve driven recently (America, Dubai, South Africa) I felt like I should just be meek in case I get murdered. Except Vegas. A cab driver said “we’re very aggressive drivers here, you may not be used to it”. Pah, they were pushovers.
I must check out Boston!
Bong – I guess I shouldn’t have said best as they do tend to have atrocious manners, but I still find those who drive in India to be much more skilled, better able to maneouver and quicker thinkers in a crisis than those who’ve never driven in chaos. One German friend of mine living in Boston was complaining how bad the driving was there precisely because people continue to dumbly follow the rules when a simple crossing of bounds (not necessarily illegal) would solve the matter.
The cabbies in NY are a very exploited and overworked bunch. I think they would have better manners if they were treated better.
Boston, like London, has lots of small one way streets that confuse visiting drivers, and local drivers who are aggro, especially since the traffic rarely gets above 50kmh. It’s like sumo – slow but aggressive.
I remember, this was a long time ago, there was a rule that the breakdown lane on the turnpike could be used as an express lane during rush hour. This made getting off the turnpike very difficult, since nobody would slowdown to let you in, especially if you were slowing down for your exit. I never saw it when I was driving up there, raising the possibility that the rule was later phased out.
The thing I like to study is the difference between the British roads (seeing as most road signs and traffic lights originated here) and how they’ve been changed abroad. My favourite example of the differences between the world’s drivers is the roundabout.
You call them rotaries, which made me giggle, but not as bad as some countries which call them gyratory circuses and in South Africa they’re called circles. But then again they call traffic lights ‘robots’. Roundabouts have travelled poorly. Despite being a New York invention, the British popularised them. Now Americans seem to have forgotten about them and go for the 4-way stop, which is much more time-consuming. The Europeans give way to those coming ON and Arabs frequently park on them. In India they represent a complete free-for-all.
But Britain has its bonkers roundabouts – here are my favourites:
Swindon Magic Roundabout. Hemel Hempstead Magic Roundabout.
I say ‘favourite’ but I almost crashed. Repeatedly.
All these happy statistics don’t sit too well with me having to deal with the worse of the cabbies on a daily basis in NYC. They may not cause accidents but they surely jeopardize all the other cars and people on the road all the time. And especially after I watched a cab go crazy on 49th and Madison, jump the sidewalk and mow down people this afternoon and having seen it quite a few times in Manhattan I will just disregard all these stats and continue to boycott them.
I hope I’m not doubleposting this…I swear I just wrote this.
Anyway, Jane, I have to agree with Divya. If you read Taxi by Biju Matthews, it’ll give you a better sense for what drivers actually deal with in terms of tickets, nuisances, and hostile government, employers, customers, random stupid kids from Long Island, etc. It’s a little bit like being a freelance writer…except with none of the redeeming qualities and the possibility of death.
On the other hand, I find it easier to drive in Manhattan than a lot of other places. The best rule is: drive exactly like a taxi driver, but signal 🙂
My “favorite” driving experience has been St. Croix (US Virgin Islands.) Because it’s the U.S., they drive American (i.e. steering wheel on the left) cars, BUT…they drive on the left side of the road. Makes those turns a little more interesting! A lot of the roads are two-way traffice, but not so two-way sized. As one guidebook put it, the locals drive in the middle of the road and pull left when they see on-coming traffic – but don’t try it: as a tourist, you’ll pull the wrong way!
I’ve driven left, I’ve driven right – but that comboa, wowzahs!
i concur with the Boston area having really bad, really impatient and really rude drivers. plus they don’t know how to use roundabouts (rotaries). the taxi drivers, no matter what their national origin, drive like there’s no tomorrow (there should be a mandatory sick bag in every taxi, especially those coming from the airport). on the other hand, the taxi drivers are on the whole a lot more polite and friendly than the ones i’ve experienced in nyc.
also, i’ve never seen a more oversigned road system in my life (and i think this is true of the u.s. on the whole). where one sign will suffice, or one name for a road will suffice, there are five.
Worldwide, which side of the road is more driven on? British Commonwealth – left. Rest of world – right. I wonder…India and China kind of cancel each other out (first time I’ve said that sentence) so it’s down to the less populous nations. I’m not considering how many cars in a country, just pop’n.
This post and WGiiA’s sickbag comment make me want to dig out my copy of the original Taxi, classic film.
BB, found this: http://www.brianlucas.ca/roadside/ (Which side of the road do they drive on?)
according to that site, 66% of population (for the countries included) drives on the right side.
That is an awesome link WGiiA! Thanks. I’m such an anorak.
This post and WGiiA’s sickbag comment make me want to dig out my copy of the original Taxi, classic film.
The Bollywood Taxi, right? I just saw parts of that the other day and loved it!
“That is an awesome link WGiiA! Thanks. I’m such an anorak.”
thanks for giving me a valid reason to procrastinate even more on a balmy Saturday and for saving me from doing something important and work related (in other words, boring!!).
What’s Bollywood Taxi? I’m talking Taxi. Peugeots never looked so hot and not a Latifa or Fallon in sight.
The fact that most of cabbies are of asian origin is more to do with their economic status than their skills. If you were go by driving skills, germans would beat anyone fair and square, on any day even with a maruti 800. I had once invited my german friend for a conference here(in us), and was at the mercy of his driving for a few hours. I have never seen anyone here drive at that speed with accuracy and control. German guys are amazing. No wonder they rule the F1 world and the car making industry.
When are we gonna see some desi people in the Indy 500.
Germans are pretty good drivers, agreed laloo. But you can’t use F1 as a measure of a country’s prowess or India would be a one-season-flash-in-the-pan failure. Well actually, perhaps you CAN use it then! But take Brazil – quite a few great drivers in F1 but masses of fatalities every year on the roads. Overall (with a few notable exceptions) Japanese and German cars are the best and it’s no coincidence that they have some of the best drivers. Then again, (I’ve looked it up now) Britain, Holland and Sweden have the lowest rate of road deaths per 100,000 in Europe. Germany’s a fair bit higher.
Taxi and Limousine Commission…OVERLOOKING..this trade.Guess how many South Asian people sit on the commission thats supposed to look over ths goods and bads of a trade where 40% drivers are so….NONE.Thats what I learnt from a site featuring Morshed Alam, a Bengalee running for the elections this time.
Doesn’t the TLC (I love that acronym) represent the owners more than the drivers? And I’ll bet few of the large fleet owners are desi …
Yeah I’m aware that cabbies have it rough in NYC but like any other occupation it comes with it’s hazards. It’s the hazards of being in the service business. You will always have bad people to deal with.
I’ve been in NYC for 20 years so I know how to negotiate my way around the city and the cabbies and I’m probably as bad as them or all others but one can get run off the road if you don’t learn to play along 🙂 I actually enjoy driving in NYC as rough as it is sometimes.
By the way folks here’s a great Cabbie Blog with pictures and some interesting take on life as a cabbie.
I’m stepping out and can’t find the quote, but the hazards were quite a bit worse than the average service sector employee – I thought it was a more dangerous profession than being a cop.
This is like saying ‘Ambassador is the best car for indian roads, ’cause the roads are so bad!’ The point to note is because of these crzay taxi drivers, who smell, and are never polite, normal citizens who obey traffic laws get into accidents.
Most Dangerous jobs in America according to the US Labor Dept 1. Truck driver 2. Farm worker 3. Sales supervisor/proprietor 4. Construction worker 5. Police detective 6. Airplane pilot 7. Security guard 8. Taxicab driver 9. Timber cutter 10. Cashier Firefighter ranked 14.
By the way you are thinking of livery cabs, that is the most dangerous job in NYC. Yellow cabbies are safer. Livery cabbies generally tend to be from South America versus the yellow cab world where people are South Asian.
i love the NYC drivers…they’re always very friendly to me..and they’re better drivers than my own mum. so i can deal with it!
Yo, i haven’t read any comments at all, and somebody probably already mentioned this, but… New York Hack is a blog on blogger.com that details the life of a female cab driver, she’s really interesting and actually recently got a book deal. (Insert your plaigiarism joke here.) I’d hyperlink y’all directly to the blog, but I’m not cool enough. Anyway, y’all should look it up. The author of the blog writes pretty well, and a lot of her stories are really interesting. She actually just mentioned this taxi report herself. aight, peace oh by the way, i love sepia mutiny
Its safer to play with a loaded gun while high on LSD then it is to ride in a taxi in India according to a study done by Harvard.
Okay, I made that up, but its got to be somewhat true.
Re: “…i love the NYC drivers…they’re always very friendly to me..and they’re better drivers than my own mum. so i can deal with it!…”
I love em too. Last time I took a taxi, the driver gave me half of his breakfast sandwich, made Pakistani-style. It was nice and spicy and I was really hungry.
waht’s with the title?
Driving Miss Daisy is a movie about a woman who hires a driver when she can no longer drive safely. [Roughly]
the best drivers in massachusetts are the desi drivers in cambridge…they’re nice, drive safely and quickly, and do not disturb you. so whoever thinks that the indian/pakistani drivers in boston are crazy needs to get their definition of crazy checked… opinion of cobra cobra cobra cobra