TAKEN FOR A RIDE

TAXI!   It is no surprise that a survey by Hotels.com voted the iconic London black cab the best taxis in the world, but it perhaps might have raised the occasional eyebrow that Barcelona’s swarming black and yellow cabs failed to make it into the Top Ten Taxis chart.

Their ready availability and relative affordability has made them a realistic option for getting around the city. 

However with the local and tourist economies tightening some drivers are resorting to sharp practice. Unlike London cabbies, Barcelona’s taxi drivers are not required to possess an expert knowledge of the city’s geography in order to ply their trade and regularly become “lost” with the meter spinning as they repeatedly stop ask for directions.

Visitors are now often treated to the scenic route between any two given points as a matter of course. 

One recent American arrival in the office remarked on how many similar looking cathedrals Barcelona has, having been driven past la Sagrada Familia a number of times from different directions, in a marathon drive that managed to stretch what should have been a simple a ten minute drive to over half an hour.

Relative newcomers with a reasonably good knowledge of the layout of the city and its main routes, but who speak little Spanish and look like tourists, reckon that when you take a ride in a cab you will be “taken for a ride” between about 30% to 50% of the time

As a basic rule, if there is no sat nav system in the cab, don’t get in it, unless you really want to spend a quarter of an hour driving round in circles. If possible and seek out those drivers who have a sat nav screen on the back of their front seat headrests that allow you to monitor your route.

By and large I now avoid the taxi’s and much prefer to use the excellent public transport system.