Twilight of London's black cab?
| London
鈥� A local, slice-of-life story from a Monitor correspondent.
Aside from London鈥檚 ubiquitous red double-decker buses, little else is more evocative of the city鈥檚 streetscape than the fleets of black cabs.
But increasingly, the familiar image of the traditional workhorse taxi is being eroded by the rising popularity, among drivers, of Mercedes 鈥減eople carriers.鈥�
鈥淭hey鈥檙e just better all-around vehicles,鈥� admits Peter Shand, a cabby with nearly 40 years of experience.
Nevertheless, he has yet to switch from a traditional TX1 taxi, with its distinctive front grille and round headlights, to one of the German-made alternatives, known as 鈥淰itos,鈥� whose doors slide shut with muted Teutonic efficiency.
鈥淚t鈥檚 nice to see that there is another tool on the market,鈥� Mr. Shand says, 鈥渂ut at the end of the day I鈥檓 a traditionalist, and London just wouldn鈥檛 be London without the old-fashioned black cabs.鈥�
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