I have no wish to disturb the peaceful sleep of the ghost of Rebecca Black’s song (long may it remain buried), but there is a question I must ask. I’ve been travelling in a lot of taxis lately (for work), and most of the time, there are just regular cars that are being used as taxis, rather than specifically built cabs like the London black cabs.
Now when I travel in these cars, I almost inevitably sit in front. As I see it, this has several benefits:
a better view
more comfortable seats
usually more legroom
easier to talk to the driver (I’m a chatty sort of person, but I recognise that this doesn’t apply to everyone)
I’ve been recently informed that this is weird, and that the correct place to sit in a taxi is in the back. Hogwash, sez I; that’s no reason at all - my logic is unassailable. So, if like my colleague, you preferentially sit in the back seat of a “regular car” type taxi, I’d like to hear your reasoning. If, on the other hand, you recognise my superior seating choice and wish to validate it, Front-Seaters Unite!
None of my drivers have looked very surprised - although it’s possible they’re all people of masterful facial control and exquisite manners.
Again, to clarify: I’m not talking about a purpose-built taxi like a London or NYC cab. This is just a regular car (most of them have been VW Passats, for some reason) that is being used as a taxi.
If I’m travelling with others, I want to talk with them, not the driver.
If I’m travelling by myself, chances are I’m on my way to or from the airport for work. I tend to be a bit stressed out with work travel so I’ll not be in the mood to make conversation.
Front seat, almost always - for ease of talking to the driver (not in the sense of a conversation, I don’t want any thank you very much, but for instructions on final approach. The entrance for the house my apartment is in is in a different street from the address, the building where my brother lives has no easily visible house number, and for other destinations I often want to instruct the driver where exactly I went to get dropped off.)
I’ve sat up front when we had enough people to fill the back seat, but otherwise I’ll stay in the back. The driver is usually busy on the phone when I’m coming home from the airport so no need for me to be up there. On the trip home I want to veg out so I prefer the quiet in the back.
I kind of feel like that is my assigned place as a passenger. I’m a woman. I don’t know if that makes a difference, but I rarely if ever chat with the driver. Once in Vegas we got the nicest, chattiest driver, but it’s not my norm.
In New York, for example, there was a time (1980’s till- ?) when the front seat was impossible.
You sat in the back, and there was a frickin’ wall of bulletproof glass between you and the driver.
In other cities and other countries, things are much more laid back.
Would you feel compelled to make conversation in the front seat? I’m also curious about the comfort value of sitting in a seat with more legroom - but then again, I’m relatively tall so I think about this a lot.
Interesting. That’s something I hadn’t considered.
Maybe it’s cabbies in the UK - but I’ve found that about 90% of them are chatty, and some of them are downright unstoppable when you give them a hint that you are also up for a chat. I’ve had lots of quite interesting conversations with taxi drivers. Perhaps my being a man also has something to do with it.
My trips are usually short, and to and from a hotel or office, so the veg out aspect is less important, I suppose. It might be different if I was being driven somewhere for an hour, perhaps.
I’m in the UK; these trips are outside London, where I wouldn’t sit in the front, and I’m not sure it’s allowed without specific permission from the driver. Perhaps it’s a case of it being more relaxed in the country.
I’m posting this from the front seat of a cab in Quincy, MA. I know in the late 80s in NYC, you couldn’t ride in the front seat, but since 1998 when I started visiting there again I’ve been riding in the front when we are a party of three or four. Or even if I am by myself. Just me and a companion, we are in the back.
I like to talk with the cabbies in New York. I’ve met more people from my native Karachi in taxicabs than anywhere else.
I drove a cab for a couple of months in the mid 70’s. Passengers in front was a no-no. Especially female passengers. The idea was to prevent sexual assault charges.
It’s not preferential so much as the way things are done to sit in the back unless you have enough people to need the front seat as well.
I was always under the impression that picking the front seat just because was rude and a little off-putting for the driver because of the potential assault or personal boundaries thing. It’s reinforced that the front seat is not normally for you when some of the cabs I’ve been in have the bulletproof wall between the front and the back.
I’m also in Europe, taking cabs that are always just a ‘normal’ car (usually a smaller Mercedes). I always end up sitting in front, mostly because I sort of have to ask him if he is available (answer is always yes, but once I was pointed to another cab who had been waiting longer)… then you just jump in. Really, it would seem somewhat rude (to me at least) to just jump in the back.
This feeling is fairly strong, since these are often situations where I’m not particularly waiting for a chat about my day… especially in German (not my native language).
Hah. Perhaps there’s a south Asian component to the chattiness. I’m from India, and I’ve had very pleasant chats with Indian, Pakistani, Bangladeshi, Sri Lankan, Kenyan, Portuguese, Brazilian and - perhaps surprisingly - English drivers. I like talking with cabbies, generally. They have good stories to tell, and some of them are ferociously witty.
You raise a good point about being with a companion, though - in that situation, I’d be in the back, because obviously I’m more likely to talk to my companion than the driver.
That makes sense. I do see the point of that, especially for cabs that you hail on the street. As it happens, all the cabs I take these days have to be pre-booked, so there’s a record with the company of where I was picked up, where I’m going and who the driver was. Makes for a slightly more secure experience for the passenger, I suppose, but doesn’t really protect the driver against false accusations.
Hah. “Chatty” is the kindest way of describing it. My flatmate and very good friend describes me as a “conversation whore”.
Well… It’s a bit of a long shot, based on the paucity of evidence, but perhaps there is a bit of a regional component to it. So far, the split appears to be between Europeans and Canadians sitting up front, and Americans sitting in the back. Approximately 10 data points is a bit weak, though; NEED MORE DATA!
