IIRC, MRI scanning showed that the hippocampus (a region of the brain concerned with memory and learning) in London cabbies was physically larger than in the average.
Our brains are 'plastic'. Particularly before birth and during early childhood, but even when older adults. It's even been found that some people with all all the physiological signs of dementia (found following an MRI) don't display the the classic symptoms when tested with memory tests.
The cabbie who took all four of us and our overweight luggage from Paddington to Ealing Broadway when we found there were no main line trains, after an overnight 12 hour flight, and helped use get the cases out, deserved - and got - a 20% tip ❤ he was such a nice guy, after all the impersonal plane and rail stuff we'd been through!
While visiting London numerous times during the 1980’s I would always try to tip taxi drivers the same as in America. They would frequently refuse to except anything more than a rounded up fare. Best taxis in the world with the most professional drivers.
The reason your audio is out of sync may be due to your video editor project settings are set for 25fps while your source video was shot at 30fps. When you import your video there should be an option to down-convert it to 25fps or you should set your project to 30fps to match source video.
However, being a doctor requires a holistic knowledge of one's speciality, and the ability to orientate rote information to effectively troubleshoot symptoms, and apply treatment options for the most complicated and poorly designed machine in existence. I bet black cabbies have a tremendous ability to visualise central London in different environmental states. And they must have done well in school with that amazing level of rote memorisation. I'm jelly. And all it took to make 'The Knowledge' obsolete, was billions of dollars spent by the richest country on the planet, in order to slip the surly bonds of Earth, and touch the face of God (ie: create the Global Positioning System, and share the technology). Easy! 😅
I remember watching an episode of Dragon's Den where a guy pitched an idea to charge people to call a London cabbie for navigation help. This was right before smartphones became a thing, so it was very interesting watching it knowing that context. @@Naptosis
Yeah, I've noticed it on a few of her shorts. I assume it has to do with the editing requirements for RUclips and Tiktok being different, RUclips wanting under a minute for shorts and Tiktok wanting over a minute for their better-paying thing they set up I don't remember the details of.
Yep, all her shorts are like this. It's really annoying @HappleProductions this isn't even a RUclips "Short", it's just a normal video which is 1:06 long and vertical
My first thought: I suddenly understand WHY Douglas Adams was seemingly so flabbergasted by the lack of local knowledge in NYC cabbies as detailed in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.
@OtakuLoki That's interesting because apparently New York cabbies in the 70s and 80s were required to have extensive knowledge of the city as well, although not on the level of London cabbies. The writer (and former cabbie) Fran Lebowitz talks about it in 'Pretend it's a City'.
In Psychology at college we learnt about memory and the hippocampus - it focused a lot on the study of london cabbies and bus drivers, by Maguire (et al) Needless to say their hippocampi and grey matter did indeed differ from the regular Joe's
@@jirehla-ab1671 Having a larger hippocampus and more grey matter is linked to better memory (the hippocampus is the seat of long-term memory). For the cabbies in this study, it's kind of a nature Vs nurture hypothesis: Nature: people who become cabbies already have larger hippocampi and more grey matter before becoming cabbies, thus, due to their better ability to remember things, they are the ones who pass the test. Nurture: people who become cabbies have comparable hippocampi and grey matter to the layman. Because of remembering so much information, like a muscle being exercised, the hippocampus grows
My Grandfather passed away last Tuesday at 96. He was a black cabbie but became the controller for Radio Taxis for 30 years. He was the guy black cab drivers would phone if THEY couldn't find somewhere, his knowledge of London was amazing (also amazing pre 90's film, sport and music knowledge!). His name was Derek Diamond if any ex cab drivers reading this remember him.
Folks claim that taking a black Cab is expensive. But in my limited experience, Uber ends up being just as expensive. And the Black Cab driver is much more reliable.
There was a terrific documentary called "The Knowledge" which left me vicariously traumatised, where the cabbies had to learn all the London routes using a moped. I think it only applied to the Black London cabs, but included a cabbie who'd been in "7 Up".
I too immediately thought about Tony from the 7Up documentaries. Had he not been a Black Cab driver I'd have never known about what it took to become one.
Not a documentary - it was a 1979 comedy drama - look it up on IMDB. I remember the film - spoiler alert - good laugh at the end when a city gent (pinstripe suit, bowler hat, umbrella) wanted the exact route that was the first one the cabbie had learned. I had a Hackney Carriage licence in a Surrey borough, for seven months back in '93/'94 - because I was local, born-and-bred, the test was easy - I even corrected the examiner on one of the road names. Mind you, when she asked for a route from one town to a village, I knew there were two routes, but not where the break-point was for which was shortest - she just said, "You'll soon learn that." Yeah, an absolute doddle compared to The Knowledge!
Tom the Taxi Driver on RUclips goes into great detail about the exams. For some odd reason, I've known about "The Knowledge" (as it's called) since the 80s. I'm American. No idea where I picked up that tidbit. Anyway, I love watching Tom's shift videos where we get to "ride around" with him and he shows the map and his routes. Very informational!
They should have a way of automating transport. Probably more efficient if you have a single control unit directing a number of connected passenger units. Of course, that'd be quite bulky, so you might want to place a lot of it underground.
It's not like hazing IF you know beforehand and, preferably, if you first establish the ground, exchange greetings etc, so you know it's just the exam and not the examiner being a d*ck. And I speak from experience, because I'm a med student and we do simulated patients, either with hired actors for exams or with professors and each other during classes, and yeah, sometimes you're supposed to be a rude, standoffish, dismissive or uncooperative patient, because some patients are rude and uncooperative and they still deserve proper medical treatment. We also train to react to common obstacles in trestment like with parents not wanting to treat or vaccinate their child - the last one is treated so seriously that we all had several different types of parents-not-wanting-to-vaccinate-children, so we know how to react depending on whatd the underlying issue and what attitudes and arguments to expect, so we can assure the child gets the best medical care. Although it may feel different for a service industry worker than for us, because our "client" is a person with some health issue and every human being deserves to get medical help, whereas I dont think "being driven somewhere" is a human right exactly, so there's more leeway with refusing a client who's a d*ck than with refusing to treat a patient, even if they were a d*ck.
The 'rude' patient simulation sounds very interesting. Our professors use descriptions patients usually give during investigation for pre-clinical exposure, but this sounds like a more versatile, multi-faceted conditioning. May I ask which country you are studying in?
Man, I can imagine that training comes in handy, with the number of ignorant, arrogant and entitled people out there, if the internet is any indication! I don't think I'd be able to keep my cool with some patients - antivax parents in particular. I just want to knock some sense into them! (And that's why I work with computers and not people 😂) I actually happen to have a rare disease which is usually seen in patients 30 years older and of the opposite gender, so I was used as a 'test' patient for medical students a couple of times when I was in hospital. It was actually pretty fun - I could answer any question they had (except for giving my actual diagnosis), but I couldn't actually suggest anything to them. I was an agreeable patient, though - I actually wanted them get it, so I had to try not to be too helpful and give them freebies, lol. The senior doc would make a few cynical or sarcastic comments when they got stuck or just went around in circles - but after letting them sweat a bit, he'd walk them through the questions to ask to get the relevant bits of information from me, and explain how to build up a 'picture' or template of the disease that was recognisable, even if they didn't happen to know its exact name. It was pretty fascinating to watch it from the patient side!
Sounds like how Admiral Rickover used to examine candidates for nuclear power training. He'd take the poor midshipman in his office and yell questions in his face for about 10 minutes. Rickover was long gone when I applied, but it still was stressful, being alone with a Four-star Admiral, who is also an Undersecretary of the Department of Energy and having him fire technical and mathematical questions at you.
I have a co-worker studying for the bar rn I do not think that is true. The bar is specifically designed to be so difficult to pass that unless you're a truly exceptional person, you would have to make it your full-time job to study for it.
It's like a job interview in IT. They make you do a simulated call and they are always super rude. Definitely not as hard as memorizing all the streets in London though.
I think it's excellent that they set such high standards. In a city with so many tourists, I think it's important that those using the service can feel safe and confident they will receive excellent service regardless of who is driving. Traveling can be stressful enough, and for your cab driver to get lost in the city they work in can make it even more so.
Besides the standards being so ridiculously beyond what tourists might actually need (they really can just go one pharmacy further away if they need some painkillers, man), would you demand this of any other regular service job? Would you demand encyclopedic knowledge of all coffee blends for working in any coffeeshop in a city? Or being able to determine your exact clothing sizes on first sight for being a clothing store clerk? If this were a special club for "We provide the BEST service in London", sure, go ham. But just to be A cab driver in London? Absurd. A random person from London with a GPS system will give me nearly the same amount of quality already. And cabby pay is not even close to proportional to their required expertise. Nah, get this gentlemans's club behaviour out of regular occupations
@@rommedegraauw4060it isn't viewed as a regular service job. They are essentially skilled tradesmen, and they are paid accordingly. A London cabbie can easily earn £50k+ per annum.
@@rommedegraauw4060I'd honestly say more occupations should be like this, but in turn, they should have better pay, more reasonable hours, and all the benefits one would expect of a white collar job at least. It's skilled labor, and that should be valued.
Interesting timing. I was at an event last night where Warren Firman (ex-Gladiator Ace) was telling his story. He was surprised to have been picked over bigger and stronger guys, until he was told that the producers were looking for controlled aggression. Which I hadn't even thought about.
Thanks, I knew a fair bit about cabbies exams but I didn't know about the rude fare test the examiners might do, or the "and no traffic lights!" thing. Are there many routes that you can do in London that completely avoid traffic lights? Seems like you'd have to use a main road at some point.
"I didn't tell you to shut the door" "You didn't tell me to leave it open either you wet wipe" This is where I would instantly fail and 2 years of my life goes down the drain 😅
Speaking from experience in the U.S., most professional licensing exams contain an element of hazing. I think part of it comes from pure traditionalism-"I did this, so you have to do it, too"-but I think it's also an acknowledgment that no amount of training can really predict how someone will behave in the real world. So they make it stressful to see if you can handle that.
Methinks the purpose of an exam should remain to test knowledge and ability. If they want to test stress management there is an entire other field dedicated to that and they have plenty of proper tools to do so.
@@felixmervamee7834 I completely agree. For me, my license exam (law) did not resemble actual practice in any way. Personally, I think most memorization- and improvisation-heavy professions would do better with a mix of classwork and apprenticeships than one big test.
I've never been in a Taxi. Or an Uber for that matter. I live in the middle of nowhere in America where we have neither of those things. But I have preconceived notions regarding our cabbies. Especially New York Cabbies. I'd be fascinated to hear about the differences between them. NY, London, Uber.
Anyone going for a London cab licence should know that the examiners can and will throw bad curveballs. The idea is that if you are Really ready, you can handle literally ANY combination of start and end, plus complications of route.
Seriously, there are _actual_ scans of a man's brain before he became a London cab driver. After he memorized _all_ of the street maps, locations, shortcuts, landmarks & speciality tour guide stuff than, passed _all_ of those tests he worked for a a little while. Then, doctors rescanned his brain & guess what? There was a _very_ noticeable difference in either the size of his brain or the section to do with memory had changed in a very obvious way? Something that really shocked his doctors & gave them something to study more of. You may wish to Google it? It's pretty interesting stuff. Btw, nobody can post any links in the comments sections anymore. RUclips recently put an end to it to try & stop all the "bots". RUclips did this not that long ago, sorry not my fault.
Must be a British tradition. It reminds me of Hornblower's lieutenant exam, where a board of three captains presented him with a hypothetical situation at a specific part of the ocean with a specific wind and current, and he had to come up with a solution on the fly. As I recall, he froze and was interrupted by a fire ship attack.
still done in a similar style today - army officers have a planning exercise to do, where you have too much to do , not enough time and then have to justify your decisions
The UK submarine commanders test is called the _The Perisher._ The candidate commands a submarine. They back the sub up against a coast line and three destroyers come in for the 'kill'. The candidate must keep the sub safe and sink as many of the attackers as possible. Half the would-be commanders fail and are never again allowed to serve on a submarine - because they have already reached the highest possible non-command rank so there is no future career for them. It is sometimes considered the hardest test in the world.
The being rude part? I can see that. You will get elderly with alzheimers, drug addicts, stressed bosses with chips on their shoulders and just regular drunk people. You kinda need to be able to handle and defuse a variety of situations. I had 3 know alcohol/drug addicts in my cab. And it was apperant that they didnt have money. One, the drunkest (or highest) kinda insunated that he would use a knife on me of I didnt take them. But I just calmy said that this is my job. Its my salary and I need to get paid. And the two kinda sober people agreed and just dragged Knifeguy out. Knifeguy wasnt realy wanting to harm me. He was just wasted. But if I had freaked out? Who knows? That was an extreme example . But you need peopleskills. And even then it IS a kinda dangerous job. Both customers and traffic accidents can happen
It’s every street, etc within a 6 mile radius of Charing Cross (which is still a heck of a lot of everything). Having said that, almost every black cabbie has a smartphone with Waze/similar on it.
London Cabbies have been shown to have massively abnormal brain structure to "normal" humans on MRI scans. The inly thing remotely similar is Viking bards who would memorise whole sagas and compose new ones.
They could reduce the information they've got to memorize by taking out local pharmacies, restaurants, etc because that's what GPS is for. I don't think they should use GPS for navigation because let's be frank here they're rubbish at side streets and routes around heavy Rush hour traffic.
The best thing is that all this stuff they have to learn about London streets is called “The Knowledge.” And IIRC Tom Scott once did a video testing The Knowledge against GPS.
To J. Draper: I just binge watched your videos and Wow! I am so impressed with your breadth of knowledge of British (particularly London) history. I have never been to London, but as a Canadian, I had always read about Britain (particularly London) since I was a child, and "think" I know Britain (London); and your videos are a good introduction to my eventual visit to Britain ... its on my bucket list. If I omitted to say it: Thank you. Oh yeah, I particularly like the "alternative interpretations" of British History in your videos. Keep up the good work1
Having gone from experienced San Francisco cab drivers to Uber/Lyft wage slaves required to follow the app navigation, I can say there is merit to London's approach.
I was a cab driver in my smallish Canadian city for a year putting myself through college, and THAT was stressful enough. There were only a couple hundred streets and I had a GPS! I can't fathom being required to memorize all that, do they at least make a reasonable living?
Here in the U.S. I remember a NBC news program "Dateline" doing a piece on it in the 1990's. It mentioned how candidates studied the layout of London almost as intensely as law or medical school students. The testing was a very demanding interview as mentioned here. And the passing standard was high, with failing candidates having to wait a couple of years before applying again. The high standards always stuck with me as paper maps gave way to mapquest in the 2000's, to Google maps in the 2010's.
follow a london cab driver on youtube, continuously promotes abt how great of a job it is, my ‘well i can definitely do that’ (adhd brain) looked up the knowledge and i NOPED the hell out of there lol
Sounds like a US Army NCO promotion board, they sit you down in front of a bunch of senior enlisted and grill you on a bunch of (sometimes) obscure military knowledge all while trying to intimidate and trick you up. Very high pressure, and really it's not just about the knowledge but how you handle the pressure. Mine were loads of fun, especially the one where they noticed my fly was unzipped.
Damn, I thought it was jumping across the Tower bridge while it's being raised and leaping across Thames from one barge to another. Midtown Madness 2 lied to us...
This pretty much feels like one of those exams where you try to "explain your work" when your questions are 2+2. I do Lyft in Austin and while I can't tell you where everything is exactly, I do know general information on the street layout and the locations of most hospitals and companies. It’s become so second nature that explaining it feels like explaining how I digest food.
While I do think this is a bit much. I also kind of wish that this was the level of scrutiny American cabbies went through. American cabbies, while in some places, like New York, really know their city, often and other places are completely useless😅
Honestly, this sounds like the training and knowledge you'd need if you were going to be a very exacting rich person's driver! The closest hospital is certainly understandable, and perhaps pharmacy and urgent care, as well. You don't have time to look up the nearest hospital if your passenger's just started unexpectedly going into labor.
I live in the US and I wish that cab drivers in our country were required to take tests like that. I've had some wonderful cab experiences and I've had some horrible cab experiences.
No wonder so many cabbies are sure an AI won't be able to pull it off... By means of metaphor, if you treated Windows 95 like that too many times it went titsup and puked a Blue Screen of Death.
Exams requiring any kind of public relations are like this.. and that is why they are difficult. Public admisitration, cabbies, air hostesses, and hotel managment, any institution administration personnel, u name it---they all require you to have by heart the whole gamut of any details required ot perform your job, just random, on thd top of your head. These are details people learn well while on the job, not by rote learning on an exam. Hence i fell strongly thst modern system of excessive entrance exams should be replaced by mild entrance exm tosee if he has aptitudefor the job, apprenticeship periods where he learns whole streets (as in case of london cabbies) and then gets hired for regular work. Education-to work transition of jobs is better that way, and the hazing in interviews wouldn't scar the spirit out of young people
London cab drivers, besides knowing where everything in London worth knowing is, are in my experience the epitome of professionalism and good manners. If you want to see what the opposite of that looks like just try a few taxis in Berlin. Not to be unfair, most Berlin taxi drivers are okay, but I've had some who lost their way through the city or went wild and refused my custom when for instance they found that I had an infant with me and they didn't have an infant seat. Bus drivers are even unfriendlier, but that's a different story.
Hold on, is drinking at pubs and bars just so common place and the “default” that liquor stores are named for the fact that you can’t take a drink on the premises? Never heard of “off license” before and it tickles me that such a bureaucratic label is so common and casual. Its just so British lol
Out of curiosity are ride shares like Uber and lyft available and are they required to pass the same exams?? Are cabs a government service, like buses?
'The knowledge' is apparently more information than a lawyer would learn and tests have shown it develops a memory area of the brain into some form of super computer. Pretty incredible really.
Kinda disrespectful to just cut thr initial guy off. I assume he was the one who started this conversation over at tiktok ? Also i paused to search for his @ but could only see yours ? 🤔
It does sound like hazing, but I also have this image now of a London Cabbie being a total badass! Like we would associate someone who works at the docks here in the US.
When in London, I always ask the cabbies how long they have been driving a cab and how long it took them to learn the runs. It is a great icebreaker and we always have a great conversation
GPS navigation is not a substitute for experience. A cabbie knows that it's Monday so at 16:00 there is more traffic here and less there. They know all the road changes and conditions in various weathers. They also know to not tell you to drive into a lake like GPS navigation systems have been known to do. Their skills are rare and useful, and the exams may be unreasonably rude but they do at least make sure a cabbie will do their job well.
The purpose isn’t to keep people from earning a living. London cabbies have a reputation to live up to, and that reputation is why they can earn such good money. In addition, the stringent requirements keep the streets from getting clogged with every sort of vehicle for hire to the point no one earns a living.
There are a couple of problems with using satellite navigation to get around a city. One is that you have to already know the address of the place you’re going to. Another is that tall buildings in cities make satellite navigation a lot less accurate. And unlike the map for the SatNav, the cabbie is likely to have noticed changes to the road network and can start utilising new roads immediately.
@@SAOS451316 "A cabbie knows that it's Monday so at 16:00 there is more traffic here and less there. They know all the road changes and conditions in various weathers." So does Waze.
I remember London cabbies were used as an example of the human brain being amazingly flexible in a brain documentary.
It's like memorizing the Odyssey or the Epic of Geser!
IIRC, MRI scanning showed that the hippocampus (a region of the brain concerned with memory and learning) in London cabbies was physically larger than in the average.
Cool!
i saw that one, it show how amazing and flexing our brain is, we do not give it enough credit.
Our brains are 'plastic'.
Particularly before birth and during early childhood, but even when older adults.
It's even been found that some people with all all the physiological signs of dementia (found following an MRI) don't display the the classic symptoms when tested with memory tests.
I hope the pay for all of that is on the level.
Black Cab drivers are self employed, they own their own Cabs and pay their own expenses, some earn a really good wage, others not so much
The cabbie who took all four of us and our overweight luggage from Paddington to Ealing Broadway when we found there were no main line trains, after an overnight 12 hour flight, and helped use get the cases out, deserved - and got - a 20% tip ❤ he was such a nice guy, after all the impersonal plane and rail stuff we'd been through!
They all eventually live in the suburbs in big houses - an incredibly well paid job, after you get your Hackney Badge.
While visiting London numerous times during the 1980’s I would always try to tip taxi drivers the same as in America. They would frequently refuse to except anything more than a rounded up fare. Best taxis in the world with the most professional drivers.
@@alaricsnellpymtips? Hmm
The reason your audio is out of sync may be due to your video editor project settings are set for 25fps while your source video was shot at 30fps. When you import your video there should be an option to down-convert it to 25fps or you should set your project to 30fps to match source video.
Bumping this for visibility! No idea if it's true 😅 worth a shot tho
@@monicagranucci5081it is. I did music live video edits. Pain in the ass
@monicagranucci5081 it's the most common culprit
Audio doesn't have a FPS setting though. So it's supposed to happen on video. But then, the video would look like it isn't complete...
I think it was stephen Frye who said the exam for being a doctor requires less memorization
It was something that Stephen said, but I think he said it took more accessible knowledge than a lawyer.
@@johnmh1000 I think you are right. I should have researched before commenting. Thx
However, being a doctor requires a holistic knowledge of one's speciality, and the ability to orientate rote information to effectively troubleshoot symptoms, and apply treatment options for the most complicated and poorly designed machine in existence.
I bet black cabbies have a tremendous ability to visualise central London in different environmental states. And they must have done well in school with that amazing level of rote memorisation. I'm jelly.
And all it took to make 'The Knowledge' obsolete, was billions of dollars spent by the richest country on the planet, in order to slip the surly bonds of Earth, and touch the face of God (ie: create the Global Positioning System, and share the technology).
Easy! 😅
I remember watching an episode of Dragon's Den where a guy pitched an idea to charge people to call a London cabbie for navigation help. This was right before smartphones became a thing, so it was very interesting watching it knowing that context. @@Naptosis
@@Peter-oh3hc No problem, I only remember it because I was watching the interview on RUclips a day or so before.
Is the audio out of sync for anyone else? Thanks for the videos J. You're awesome
Yeah, I've noticed it on a few of her shorts. I assume it has to do with the editing requirements for RUclips and Tiktok being different, RUclips wanting under a minute for shorts and Tiktok wanting over a minute for their better-paying thing they set up I don't remember the details of.
Yes - happens sometimes in YT processing. It's a buggy pain.
I prefer it that way
Yep, all her shorts are like this. It's really annoying
@HappleProductions this isn't even a RUclips "Short", it's just a normal video which is 1:06 long and vertical
Yep, for a lot of her videos. I just try and pay it no mind as I like her work and want the information she is providing, so I put up with it.
Doing 'The Knowledge'.
I remember them in the 1970's and '80's, going up and down streets on their mopeds, with a clipboard on their handlebars.
ah yes id forgotten about the mopeds and clipboards. 😊
My first thought:
I suddenly understand WHY Douglas Adams was seemingly so flabbergasted by the lack of local knowledge in NYC cabbies as detailed in So Long and Thanks for All the Fish.
Local knowledge would be piece of piss for knee ork cabbies.
What’s the quickest ROUT between 5th and 3rd and 7th and 40th?
@OtakuLoki That's interesting because apparently New York cabbies in the 70s and 80s were required to have extensive knowledge of the city as well, although not on the level of London cabbies. The writer (and former cabbie) Fran Lebowitz talks about it in 'Pretend it's a City'.
In Psychology at college we learnt about memory and the hippocampus - it focused a lot on the study of london cabbies and bus drivers, by Maguire (et al)
Needless to say their hippocampi and grey matter did indeed differ from the regular Joe's
Hi pls elaborate on how this affects them?
@@jirehla-ab1671 Having a larger hippocampus and more grey matter is linked to better memory (the hippocampus is the seat of long-term memory). For the cabbies in this study, it's kind of a nature Vs nurture hypothesis:
Nature: people who become cabbies already have larger hippocampi and more grey matter before becoming cabbies, thus, due to their better ability to remember things, they are the ones who pass the test.
Nurture: people who become cabbies have comparable hippocampi and grey matter to the layman. Because of remembering so much information, like a muscle being exercised, the hippocampus grows
My Grandfather passed away last Tuesday at 96. He was a black cabbie but became the controller for Radio Taxis for 30 years. He was the guy black cab drivers would phone if THEY couldn't find somewhere, his knowledge of London was amazing (also amazing pre 90's film, sport and music knowledge!). His name was Derek Diamond if any ex cab drivers reading this remember him.
So sorry for your loss, and that of a great mind.
Rest in peace, Mr. Diamond.
Derek Diamond is exactly what I'd expect an old school cabbie to be called. Sorry for your loss.
What's funny is when you first said black cab I wasn't sure if you were talking about race or the actual type of cab.
Uber: congratulations, you have a driver's license! Welcome to ride sharing
🤣🤣🤣
Didn't they get in trouble a few years ago because they weren't actually checking if drivers had valid licences?
Folks claim that taking a black Cab is expensive. But in my limited experience, Uber ends up being just as expensive. And the Black Cab driver is much more reliable.
There was a terrific documentary called "The Knowledge" which left me vicariously traumatised, where the cabbies had to learn all the London routes using a moped. I think it only applied to the Black London cabs, but included a cabbie who'd been in "7 Up".
I too immediately thought about Tony from the 7Up documentaries. Had he not been a Black Cab driver I'd have never known about what it took to become one.
@@SheOfCertainGaitsame.
Not a documentary - it was a 1979 comedy drama - look it up on IMDB. I remember the film - spoiler alert - good laugh at the end when a city gent (pinstripe suit, bowler hat, umbrella) wanted the exact route that was the first one the cabbie had learned.
I had a Hackney Carriage licence in a Surrey borough, for seven months back in '93/'94 - because I was local, born-and-bred, the test was easy - I even corrected the examiner on one of the road names. Mind you, when she asked for a route from one town to a village, I knew there were two routes, but not where the break-point was for which was shortest - she just said, "You'll soon learn that." Yeah, an absolute doddle compared to The Knowledge!
Tom the Taxi Driver on RUclips goes into great detail about the exams. For some odd reason, I've known about "The Knowledge" (as it's called) since the 80s. I'm American. No idea where I picked up that tidbit. Anyway, I love watching Tom's shift videos where we get to "ride around" with him and he shows the map and his routes. Very informational!
They should have a way of automating transport. Probably more efficient if you have a single control unit directing a number of connected passenger units. Of course, that'd be quite bulky, so you might want to place a lot of it underground.
@@jasonbennett7002 how did you see it when it's underground? Do you have radar vision?
*Gasp! * Are you Superman?
@@daddymuggle Superman has x-ray vision, not radar vision!
@@_Mentat ah yes, quite, quite.
Something something Adam Something.
It's not like hazing IF you know beforehand and, preferably, if you first establish the ground, exchange greetings etc, so you know it's just the exam and not the examiner being a d*ck.
And I speak from experience, because I'm a med student and we do simulated patients, either with hired actors for exams or with professors and each other during classes, and yeah, sometimes you're supposed to be a rude, standoffish, dismissive or uncooperative patient, because some patients are rude and uncooperative and they still deserve proper medical treatment. We also train to react to common obstacles in trestment like with parents not wanting to treat or vaccinate their child - the last one is treated so seriously that we all had several different types of parents-not-wanting-to-vaccinate-children, so we know how to react depending on whatd the underlying issue and what attitudes and arguments to expect, so we can assure the child gets the best medical care.
Although it may feel different for a service industry worker than for us, because our "client" is a person with some health issue and every human being deserves to get medical help, whereas I dont think "being driven somewhere" is a human right exactly, so there's more leeway with refusing a client who's a d*ck than with refusing to treat a patient, even if they were a d*ck.
The 'rude' patient simulation sounds very interesting. Our professors use descriptions patients usually give during investigation for pre-clinical exposure, but this sounds like a more versatile, multi-faceted conditioning.
May I ask which country you are studying in?
Man, I can imagine that training comes in handy, with the number of ignorant, arrogant and entitled people out there, if the internet is any indication! I don't think I'd be able to keep my cool with some patients - antivax parents in particular. I just want to knock some sense into them!
(And that's why I work with computers and not people 😂)
I actually happen to have a rare disease which is usually seen in patients 30 years older and of the opposite gender, so I was used as a 'test' patient for medical students a couple of times when I was in hospital. It was actually pretty fun - I could answer any question they had (except for giving my actual diagnosis), but I couldn't actually suggest anything to them.
I was an agreeable patient, though - I actually wanted them get it, so I had to try not to be too helpful and give them freebies, lol.
The senior doc would make a few cynical or sarcastic comments when they got stuck or just went around in circles - but after letting them sweat a bit, he'd walk them through the questions to ask to get the relevant bits of information from me, and explain how to build up a 'picture' or template of the disease that was recognisable, even if they didn't happen to know its exact name.
It was pretty fascinating to watch it from the patient side!
There’s a wonderful film starring Nigel Hawthorne called”The Knowledge”. Hilariously and highly recommended!
Yes, by Jack Rosenthal. It's wonderful!
Sounds like how Admiral Rickover used to examine candidates for nuclear power training. He'd take the poor midshipman in his office and yell questions in his face for about 10 minutes.
Rickover was long gone when I applied, but it still was stressful, being alone with a Four-star Admiral, who is also an Undersecretary of the Department of Energy and having him fire technical and mathematical questions at you.
Amazingly London Cabbies "knowledge" contains more things to memorise than the amount needed to pass the bar exam for a lawyer.
Just goes to show there is a huge disconnect between pay scale and job complexity, and there is no such thing as "unskilled labour"
I have a co-worker studying for the bar rn I do not think that is true. The bar is specifically designed to be so difficult to pass that unless you're a truly exceptional person, you would have to make it your full-time job to study for it.
It's like a job interview in IT. They make you do a simulated call and they are always super rude. Definitely not as hard as memorizing all the streets in London though.
I think it's excellent that they set such high standards. In a city with so many tourists, I think it's important that those using the service can feel safe and confident they will receive excellent service regardless of who is driving. Traveling can be stressful enough, and for your cab driver to get lost in the city they work in can make it even more so.
Besides the standards being so ridiculously beyond what tourists might actually need (they really can just go one pharmacy further away if they need some painkillers, man), would you demand this of any other regular service job?
Would you demand encyclopedic knowledge of all coffee blends for working in any coffeeshop in a city?
Or being able to determine your exact clothing sizes on first sight for being a clothing store clerk?
If this were a special club for "We provide the BEST service in London", sure, go ham. But just to be A cab driver in London? Absurd. A random person from London with a GPS system will give me nearly the same amount of quality already. And cabby pay is not even close to proportional to their required expertise.
Nah, get this gentlemans's club behaviour out of regular occupations
@@rommedegraauw4060it isn't viewed as a regular service job. They are essentially skilled tradesmen, and they are paid accordingly. A London cabbie can easily earn £50k+ per annum.
@@rommedegraauw4060I'd honestly say more occupations should be like this, but in turn, they should have better pay, more reasonable hours, and all the benefits one would expect of a white collar job at least. It's skilled labor, and that should be valued.
Interesting timing. I was at an event last night where Warren Firman (ex-Gladiator Ace) was telling his story. He was surprised to have been picked over bigger and stronger guys, until he was told that the producers were looking for controlled aggression. Which I hadn't even thought about.
Thanks, I knew a fair bit about cabbies exams but I didn't know about the rude fare test the examiners might do, or the "and no traffic lights!" thing. Are there many routes that you can do in London that completely avoid traffic lights? Seems like you'd have to use a main road at some point.
"I didn't tell you to shut the door"
"You didn't tell me to leave it open either you wet wipe"
This is where I would instantly fail and 2 years of my life goes down the drain 😅
Speaking from experience in the U.S., most professional licensing exams contain an element of hazing. I think part of it comes from pure traditionalism-"I did this, so you have to do it, too"-but I think it's also an acknowledgment that no amount of training can really predict how someone will behave in the real world. So they make it stressful to see if you can handle that.
Methinks the purpose of an exam should remain to test knowledge and ability. If they want to test stress management there is an entire other field dedicated to that and they have plenty of proper tools to do so.
@@felixmervamee7834 I completely agree. For me, my license exam (law) did not resemble actual practice in any way. Personally, I think most memorization- and improvisation-heavy professions would do better with a mix of classwork and apprenticeships than one big test.
This is why ride-share apps are so popular
In my country cab drivers almost always use a navigator application. Why make things complicated when we are quarter in the new century?
I've never been in a Taxi. Or an Uber for that matter. I live in the middle of nowhere in America where we have neither of those things. But I have preconceived notions regarding our cabbies. Especially New York Cabbies. I'd be fascinated to hear about the differences between them. NY, London, Uber.
Anyone going for a London cab licence should know that
the examiners can and will throw bad curveballs.
The idea is that if you are Really ready, you can handle literally ANY
combination of start and end, plus complications of route.
Seriously, there are _actual_ scans of a man's brain before he became a London cab driver. After he memorized _all_ of the street maps, locations, shortcuts, landmarks & speciality tour guide stuff than, passed _all_ of those tests he worked for a a little while. Then, doctors rescanned his brain & guess what? There was a _very_ noticeable difference in either the size of his brain or the section to do with memory had changed in a very obvious way? Something that really shocked his doctors & gave them something to study more of.
You may wish to Google it? It's pretty interesting stuff. Btw, nobody can post any links in the comments sections anymore. RUclips recently put an end to it to try & stop all the "bots". RUclips did this not that long ago, sorry not my fault.
Loved the Palestine video, thanks so much
took a tour in a London cab last year and yeah dude said the same the exams, its wild how much they have to memorize.
Yes, I have heard about The Knowledge from a friend who was a cabbie. It is tough but I can see the benefit.
Must be a British tradition. It reminds me of Hornblower's lieutenant exam, where a board of three captains presented him with a hypothetical situation at a specific part of the ocean with a specific wind and current, and he had to come up with a solution on the fly. As I recall, he froze and was interrupted by a fire ship attack.
still done in a similar style today - army officers have a planning exercise to do, where you have too much to do , not enough time and then have to justify your decisions
The UK submarine commanders test is called the _The Perisher._ The candidate commands a submarine. They back the sub up against a coast line and three destroyers come in for the 'kill'. The candidate must keep the sub safe and sink as many of the attackers as possible. Half the would-be commanders fail and are never again allowed to serve on a submarine - because they have already reached the highest possible non-command rank so there is no future career for them. It is sometimes considered the hardest test in the world.
Someone may have asked already, but this got me thinking. Do ambulance drivers have to memorize anything close to this?
Good question.
Thank you for the other video ;-) . Was great seing your response :-) .
My dad was a cab driver in the USA (California and Washington states) and I'm pretty sure there was nothing like this.
As someone who has lived in both places... you are correct 😂
The being rude part? I can see that.
You will get elderly with alzheimers, drug addicts, stressed bosses with chips on their shoulders and just regular drunk people.
You kinda need to be able to handle and defuse a variety of situations.
I had 3 know alcohol/drug addicts in my cab. And it was apperant that they didnt have money.
One, the drunkest (or highest) kinda insunated that he would use a knife on me of I didnt take them.
But I just calmy said that this is my job. Its my salary and I need to get paid. And the two kinda sober people agreed and just dragged Knifeguy out.
Knifeguy wasnt realy wanting to harm me. He was just wasted. But if I had freaked out? Who knows?
That was an extreme example . But you need peopleskills.
And even then it IS a kinda dangerous job. Both customers and traffic accidents can happen
Dang, yeah. That sounds a lot like the plebe beat my dad went through at military academy.
You might want to follow Tom the taxi driver (On RUclips, not in real life, that would be kinda creepy).😅
I've heard the exams for London cabbies are considered some of the most difficult in the world.
Without running any lights ?? Wait so people routinely run traffic lights in England ? That is really messed up
Not a single Parisian cab driver would pass that. Not for not knowing the city, for not being allowed to cuss the client.
While requiring a local knowledge test for taxi drivers isn’t unique to London, the London Knowledge is famous for just how difficult it is.
The Knowledge is one of the last truly magical things in London :-)
Isn’t the exam called “The Knowledge”?
It’s every street, etc within a 6 mile radius of Charing Cross (which is still a heck of a lot of everything). Having said that, almost every black cabbie has a smartphone with Waze/similar on it.
Between ride share apps and Google Maps, I wonder how much longer London cabs will still be a viable business model.
If I'm ever on that side of the pond, I'll never forget to tip my cabbie.
Stress testing someone who is taking a mastery level exam isn't hazing.
I'm sure the examiners think there's a benefit to all this
But really it's just trauma for the driver
London Cabbies have been shown to have massively abnormal brain structure to "normal" humans on MRI scans. The inly thing remotely similar is Viking bards who would memorise whole sagas and compose new ones.
Does anywhere else in the world do this? If not... why not?
They could reduce the information they've got to memorize by taking out local pharmacies, restaurants, etc because that's what GPS is for. I don't think they should use GPS for navigation because let's be frank here they're rubbish at side streets and routes around heavy Rush hour traffic.
How much does the average cabbie make?
The best thing is that all this stuff they have to learn about London streets is called “The Knowledge.” And IIRC Tom Scott once did a video testing The Knowledge against GPS.
I'll second that people should go watch that video.
This sounds like hell. Like,I understand the reason for it, butI don't know how anybody could stand that.
@@jasonbennett7002 Not just being given an exam, but the intensity of it. The intense scrutiny sounds extremely stressful.
To J. Draper: I just binge watched your videos and Wow! I am so impressed with your breadth of knowledge of British (particularly London) history. I have never been to London, but as a Canadian, I had always read about Britain (particularly London) since I was a child, and "think" I know Britain (London); and your videos are a good introduction to my eventual visit to Britain ... its on my bucket list. If I omitted to say it: Thank you.
Oh yeah, I particularly like the "alternative interpretations" of British History in your videos. Keep up the good work1
I saw a report about "The Knowledge" on 60 minutes one time. It made my two years learning nuclear power with the Navy seem easy.
In my line of work we call that a murder board. And the point it to make it as stressful as possible.
Someone should tell brits GPS navigation is a thing
London cab drivers are faster than following a GPS
I'd feel comfy taking a cab in London because of this.
London cabbies are very knowledgeable indeed. Thank you for sharing. Stay safe, warm, happy and healthy. From Henrico County Virginia
Dang, sounds like going in front of a prison parole board would be easier!
Roleplaying rude customers reminds me of the extreme negative feedback bit from Mitchell and Webb.
🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸🇵🇸
Is it no wonder : "Cache Cab: Taxi Drivers Brains Grow to Navigate London Streets" 8 Dec '11 Scientific American ...
Having gone from experienced San Francisco cab drivers to Uber/Lyft wage slaves required to follow the app navigation, I can say there is merit to London's approach.
"without going through traffic lights", that's elite knowledge. This made me kind of jealous of cab drivers
I remember learning about the examinations decades ago… I thought GPS would have done away with them. 😮
Guess I’m wrong.
I was a cab driver in my smallish Canadian city for a year putting myself through college, and THAT was stressful enough. There were only a couple hundred streets and I had a GPS!
I can't fathom being required to memorize all that, do they at least make a reasonable living?
Here in the U.S. I remember a NBC news program "Dateline" doing a piece on it in the 1990's. It mentioned how candidates studied the layout of London almost as intensely as law or medical school students. The testing was a very demanding interview as mentioned here. And the passing standard was high, with failing candidates having to wait a couple of years before applying again.
The high standards always stuck with me as paper maps gave way to mapquest in the 2000's, to Google maps in the 2010's.
follow a london cab driver on youtube, continuously promotes abt how great of a job it is, my ‘well i can definitely do that’ (adhd brain) looked up the knowledge and i NOPED the hell out of there lol
It is amazing that is what a person can do.
Sounds like a US Army NCO promotion board, they sit you down in front of a bunch of senior enlisted and grill you on a bunch of (sometimes) obscure military knowledge all while trying to intimidate and trick you up. Very high pressure, and really it's not just about the knowledge but how you handle the pressure. Mine were loads of fun, especially the one where they noticed my fly was unzipped.
Damn, I thought it was jumping across the Tower bridge while it's being raised and leaping across Thames from one barge to another. Midtown Madness 2 lied to us...
This pretty much feels like one of those exams where you try to "explain your work" when your questions are 2+2. I do Lyft in Austin and while I can't tell you where everything is exactly, I do know general information on the street layout and the locations of most hospitals and companies. It’s become so second nature that explaining it feels like explaining how I digest food.
While I do think this is a bit much. I also kind of wish that this was the level of scrutiny American cabbies went through. American cabbies, while in some places, like New York, really know their city, often and other places are completely useless😅
I wish more cities would have stardards for cabbies more than just paying for the medallion.
Honestly, this sounds like the training and knowledge you'd need if you were going to be a very exacting rich person's driver! The closest hospital is certainly understandable, and perhaps pharmacy and urgent care, as well. You don't have time to look up the nearest hospital if your passenger's just started unexpectedly going into labor.
I live in the US and I wish that cab drivers in our country were required to take tests like that. I've had some wonderful cab experiences and I've had some horrible cab experiences.
No wonder so many cabbies are sure an AI won't be able to pull it off... By means of metaphor, if you treated Windows 95 like that too many times it went titsup and puked a Blue Screen of Death.
Exams requiring any kind of public relations are like this.. and that is why they are difficult. Public admisitration, cabbies, air hostesses, and hotel managment, any institution administration personnel, u name it---they all require you to have by heart the whole gamut of any details required ot perform your job, just random, on thd top of your head. These are details people learn well while on the job, not by rote learning on an exam. Hence i fell strongly thst modern system of excessive entrance exams should be replaced by mild entrance exm tosee if he has aptitudefor the job, apprenticeship periods where he learns whole streets (as in case of london cabbies) and then gets hired for regular work. Education-to work transition of jobs is better that way, and the hazing in interviews wouldn't scar the spirit out of young people
That seems very rude! And obnoxiously difficult.
A wonderful cabbie told me all about The Knowedge. It’s something else.
My brother spent years practicing for that test. He passed. Then turned the job down to work for police admin.
Your cabbies have exams? That's wild.
London cab drivers, besides knowing where everything in London worth knowing is, are in my experience the epitome of professionalism and good manners. If you want to see what the opposite of that looks like just try a few taxis in Berlin. Not to be unfair, most Berlin taxi drivers are okay, but I've had some who lost their way through the city or went wild and refused my custom when for instance they found that I had an infant with me and they didn't have an infant seat. Bus drivers are even unfriendlier, but that's a different story.
Hold on, is drinking at pubs and bars just so common place and the “default” that liquor stores are named for the fact that you can’t take a drink on the premises? Never heard of “off license” before and it tickles me that such a bureaucratic label is so common and casual. Its just so British lol
No, CDL drivers have to memorize a lot of things as well. If you are not aware of your environment, you can cause a lot of damage.
Out of curiosity are ride shares like Uber and lyft available and are they required to pass the same exams?? Are cabs a government service, like buses?
'The knowledge' is apparently more information than a lawyer would learn and tests have shown it develops a memory area of the brain into some form of super computer. Pretty incredible really.
i would just drive for uber
Sounds like hazing to me as well 😮
I'm sure Stephen Fry said something about cab drivers having to learn more information than a law student does to become a barrister.
Kinda disrespectful to just cut thr initial guy off. I assume he was the one who started this conversation over at tiktok ?
Also i paused to search for his @ but could only see yours ? 🤔
The test to be a cab driver in London is tougher than the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) to get into any U.S. University
It does sound like hazing, but I also have this image now of a London Cabbie being a total badass! Like we would associate someone who works at the docks here in the US.
When in London, I always ask the cabbies how long they have been driving a cab and how long it took them to learn the runs.
It is a great icebreaker and we always have a great conversation
In a world where almost EVERYONE has a GPS device, the only purpose these exams have is to keep people from earning a living.
GPS navigation is not a substitute for experience. A cabbie knows that it's Monday so at 16:00 there is more traffic here and less there. They know all the road changes and conditions in various weathers. They also know to not tell you to drive into a lake like GPS navigation systems have been known to do. Their skills are rare and useful, and the exams may be unreasonably rude but they do at least make sure a cabbie will do their job well.
The purpose isn’t to keep people from earning a living. London cabbies have a reputation to live up to, and that reputation is why they can earn such good money. In addition, the stringent requirements keep the streets from getting clogged with every sort of vehicle for hire to the point no one earns a living.
There are a couple of problems with using satellite navigation to get around a city. One is that you have to already know the address of the place you’re going to. Another is that tall buildings in cities make satellite navigation a lot less accurate. And unlike the map for the SatNav, the cabbie is likely to have noticed changes to the road network and can start utilising new roads immediately.
@@SAOS451316 "A cabbie knows that it's Monday so at 16:00 there is more traffic here and less there. They know all the road changes and conditions in various weathers."
So does Waze.
Exams?? Here in Canada they can't even speak English