# The Knowledge of London.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-knowledge-of-london/704286>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [November 10, 2014, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-knowledge-of-london/704286 "2014-11-10T23:51:44Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![slaphead](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e9bcb4/32.png) [@slaphead](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slaphead)\
**Post date:** [November 18, 2014, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-knowledge-of-london/704286/21 "2014-11-18T13:57:47Z")

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and black cab drivers are generally excellent in the area it covers. However:

[QUOTEthe article]  
The six-mile radius from Charing Cross, the putative center-point of London marked by an equestrian statue of King Charles I, takes in some 25,000 streets.  
[/QUOTE]

If you happen to live outside the magic six-mile radius, then you have the three problems that:  
[ol]  
[li]Your cabbie may not know how to get to your destination[/li][li]They may not wish to go there in case they can’t find a fare wanting to go in the ‘right’ direction (no-one likes deadheading)[/li][li]Because of the premium you pay for The Knowledge plus insurance/licencing of black cabs, you may not be able to afford the fare[/li][/ol]  
In my opinon it’s not sustainable for long in it’s present form - it can’t be too long before a reasonably priced nav system is regularly able to match or beat the average cabbie and then it all just becomes a licencing/insurance boondoggle like the (infamous) NY medallions

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