Technology has certainly changed the way people move around cities. If you don’t know where you’re going, you look up real-time directions on your smartphone. Need a ride uptown? Just tap your Uber app. Some municipalities are even exploring apps that would support the taxi industry upended by the likes of Uber.
But how does a city incentivize would-be drivers to choose a career with a traditional taxi service rather than a flexible and potentially more lucrative career with a “ride-share” company?
New York, for one, recently started limiting the number of geography-related questions on its required test for drivers of the city’s yellow cabs. Allan Fromberg, a spokesman from the Taxi and Limousine Commission told the New York Times that GPS technology has a lot to do with the change, but many industry experts suspect that growing “sharing economy” threat played a part in the test’s makeover.
Some New Yorkers are worried that cab drivers will not be able to safely navigate the city if their only geographical knowledge comes from a GPS, but Fromberg says this criticism is unfair. “The chance that a licensed cab driver is not going to know where major tourist attractions are is slim to none,” he told the Times.
Meanwhile, across the pond, standards for new cab drivers are being raised. The Leicester Mercury recently reported that those taking the area’s already daunting geography test will soon be expected to know an additional 135 streets and about 40 more places.
Mike Broster, Leicester City Council’s head of regulatory services, told the Mercury, “people ask why we even need a test when there are sat navs but not everybody uses them and they do not always work or take the most direct route.”
Jenn Stanley is a freelance journalist, essayist and independent producer living in Chicago. She has an M.S. from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University.
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