Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Prius taxis everywhere you look!

ska invita

ska invita

back on the other side
Has anyone else noticed the huge amount of Prius's that are now out on London streets working as minicabs? Seems to me that 95% of minicabs are now Prius's!
Anyone know whats happened?
Is this just in London?
 
ska invita said:
Is this just in London?
Click to expand...

No, I see a lot of them around towns in the shires. Probably just better economics for predominately urban trips? Anything that helps keep kerbside pollution down can't be a bad thing (taxis always used to be diesel almost across the board), though they can creep up silently on unsuspecting pedestrians when crossing residential roads...
 
Yes the Prius is well suited to the stop-start urban life of a taxi. And as 2hats says they are much better than diesel as far as toxic emissions go.
 
2hats said:
No, I see a lot of them around towns in the shires. Probably just better economics for predominately urban trips? Anything that helps keep kerbside pollution down can't be a bad thing (taxis always used to be diesel almost across the board), though they can creep up silently on unsuspecting pedestrians when crossing residential roads...
Click to expand...

They are very quiet. I guess if one of your main expenses is fuel, then they make a lot of sense.

I look forward to seeing more hybrids on the roads.
 
I dont know how to tell what car is greener than another, but i presume Prius's are much better deal than black cabs?
 
Much more efficient on fuel than standard cars aren't they, so if you're going to be ubering around town all day, often stuck in London traffic, the Prius is probably the best/cheapest car to be running. They are also very popular in LA for Uber drivers too FWIW.

Ugly things mind.
 
Started about 10 years ago with Green Tomatoes and ecoigo in London and has been ubiquitous for about 5 years. When the 'green' firms started up the other big firms had to take on Priuses so they could tick the green boxes when they were tendering and it started filtering down to local minicab level about 3 years later when the larger firms started replacing their fleets and local minicab drivers bought the old ones. For an industry that hasn't seen real pay rises (in fact most firms, including Uber, have cut rates) for drivers in over 10 years the Prius was the nearest the drivers got to extra money because it immediately saved them 80 odd quid a week in fuel.
 
We've got a 2005 Prius. When we bought it it was one of the greenest cars on the market in terms of emissions and we didn't pay the congestion charge as a result. Plenty of cars are better these days though. Tends to average 40-50mpg depending on journeys.
 
Having had to spend a few weeks driving in Central London recently (work stuff) I've come to the conclusion that the Prius must be an impossible car to drive. Despite seeing hundreds of them about you never ever see one being driven remotely well. I feel sorry for the drivers every journey must be a battle in that car.
 
Teaboy said:
Having had to spend a few weeks driving in Central London recently (work stuff) I've come to the conclusion that the Prius must be an impossible car to drive. Despite seeing hundreds of them about you never ever see one being driven remotely well. I feel sorry for the drivers every journey must be a battle in that car.
Click to expand...

That's probably more to do with the general low standard of driving in the capital!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

I
Taxis
Replies
11
Views
381
T & P
T & P
kalidarkone
Looking for a MWB VW Crafter or Merc Sprinter
Replies
3
Views
219
skyscraper101
skyscraper101
editor
Revolution VLR- Very Light Rail project looks to make route reopenings viable
Replies
20
Views
1K
Elpenor
Elpenor
teuchter
Taxi booking tips?
2
Replies
32
Views
877
hash tag
hash tag
skyscraper101
Map shows what the Tube would look like in the style of the New York subway
Replies
11
Views
626
skyscraper101
skyscraper101
Back
Top Bottom