When I was in New York last [I've only been twice unfortunatly] I took cabs quite a lot around the city and noticed that on not one of my journeys did my cab driver know where he was going!! We had to pretty much direct him all the way. Is this normal for new york or did i just happen to hail down some new drivers?
Natalie

I think that's a fluke. Normally, especially in manhattan, they'll know where they're going.

Actually, I was going to agree with the first poster - I find I have about a 40% chance of getting a cabdriver who does not know the way to my house, or who purposefully takes a longer way than necessary not out of malice, but because it's the only one he knows.

agreed, you better know where you're going if you're going outside of manhattan, but within manhattan, I've never had a cab driver who didn't know how to get to my destination.

But still, I'm always startled at how poorly NYC cab drivers compare to London cabbies, who actually know all the streets in their city.

I must have been lucky, but then again in all the time I lived in New York I rarely caught a cab, mostly using the subway. All the ones I got seemed to know their way, but then I was mostly going to JFK. I got American cabbies three times as well, which I thought was pretty good.

This past trip the only taxi I took was to the airport and that was smooth. The last trip however, we took taxi's 3 or 4 times and my sister-in-law was the navigator EVERY time.

I must admit to being totally surprised when I took a cab from my house to DIA that the driver asked me the best way to get there. I live in the middle of the city, not a suburb. I guess it's the same no matter where. Most of our drivers are from Africa.

The main difference between cab drivers in NYC and London is that in London (at least this is how it appeared to me when I was there studying) most have lived in London for a long time and being a cab driver is not just a temporary job. In NYC many of our cab drivers are immigrants that have not yet found a better job. Driving a cab is the only job they could get when they moved here so they are still new to the city. I find that in London the cabbies I met (I worked at Starbucks so we had some regulars) were very happy to be cab drivers and proud of their job, not waiting for something better to come along and have driven for longer. In NYC cab drivers always seem to be new to the US and new to the city, hence the lack of street knowledge.

Betoracle told me a wonderful story on our way to Brighton Beach, about a cab driver while I was visiting. She asked him where he was from, and he told her the ride was free if she guessed correctly. She did!

Anyway, as I recall, he had lived here quite sometime, 5 years maybe. He worked 12 - 13 hours a day. All he did was drive his cab, go home, eat, sleep. His life was still as if he just came here.

Bet told him to take one hour each day, park his cab and walk the neighborhood he was in. Taking that one hour a day would make him feel like a true NY'er, he would know his city, and feel like he had a life. She said he cried and told her she had changed his life, and would not let her pay her fare. She made him taking it saying that would pay for his first hour off the meter.

I loved that story and almost cried at the end myself.

Oh that is such a lovely story!

Thanks for all responses too. It was just something I had wondered, because like Red mentioned, you don't even have to whisper a left or right when getting a cab around London.
Oh, it also took us a good hour to get from JKF to Brooklyn. The cab driver couldn't find Flatbush avenue....!!!!

I couldn't get him to take the fare!

By the way Bet, you would not have liked our driver to the airport. He was on his cell THE WHOLE TIME! It took me awhile to realize that, as he spoke so quietly.

I was thinking yesterday what would happen if everyone in New York asked their cabdriver if they took a break during the day. If not, try to talk them into it to take the time to explore their city as you did. It could be the start of a revolution! Or would that be a revelation?