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Possibly because the transit systems in so many US cities are woeful and because a lot of the legacy taxi companies took bad service to new levels of awfulness, a lot of people have been drawn into the world of Uber and Lyft, and now, as soon as these same people need to get anywhere, it’s habitual. Out comes the smartphone and in a few taps, an Uber or a Lyft has been summoned.
In a lot of places, that’s probably the right way to go. In some places, it’s probably the only way to go. But if you’re visiting central London, I’d urge you to think twice before deciding to get an Uber, a FreeNow (Lyft in the UK), or a Bolt. They’re really not very good, and unlike many places in the US, London has other options. Good options.
If you can, walk
London is an incredibly walkable city and if the weather is playing nice and you don’t have too far to go, it’s often quicker to walk to where you need to go than it is to get any other form of transport.
Some may suggest cycling, but unless you know London well, that’s not a great option as you’ll have to keep stopping to check directions and, frankly, that’s not going to get you where you need to go particular quickly.
Walking, on the other hand, can be great. It’s far less dangerous than cycling, checking directions doesn’t take long, it’s far cheaper than catching some form of public transport, and you get to take in one of the world’s most important and fascinating cities as you make your way to your destination. I love walking around London.
Take the Tube
As great as walking is, if you’re reaching for the Uber app you’re probably doing so precisely because you don’t want to walk (or cannot walk) to wherever it is you need to go.
Perhaps it’s raining, perhaps you have luggage or shopping with you, perhaps you’re tired, or perhaps there’s some other issue, whichever it is, walking isn’t the solution to your transportation requirements.
Your next best option is probably going to be London’s subway system. In London it’s called the Underground or, colloquially, the Tube.
The London Underground is easy to navigate, in central London you’re never far from a station, the trains are not beholden to the traffic gods, the system generally works quite well (yes, it has its moments when lines go down), and although not cheap by European subway standards, it’s considerably cheaper and more efficient than anything a rideshare app is likely to provide.
It won’t get you door to door like a car service will, but if you’re in central London, you’re unlikely to have to do much walking.
Take a Black Cab
For times when the only thing that will do is a service that will take you to within feet of where you wish to go, the rideshare services are still, to my mind, not what a lot of people should be using. One of London’s Black Cabs (the official London taxi) is the answer.
I’m going to caveat this section by admitting straight away that Black Cabs are not as affordable as the rideshare services. They’re not hugely more expensive, but they do cost more, and there’s a reason for that. They’re better. And they’re better for a number of reasons.
Firstly, drivers of Black Cabs have to pass “the Knowledge”. This is a test that’s widely considered to be one of the hardest licensing tests in the world.
It requires memorising around 25,000 streets and roughly 20,000 landmarks within a six-mile radius of Charing Cross (a location in the very heart of London) and then being tested on those streets and landmarks in great depth. Only once they pass the test are drivers licensed to drive a Black Cab.
These guys don’t need Google Maps to tell them how to get to where you’re going. They know.
In my experience (and I have quite a bit of it), the same can’t be said for the overwhelming majority of Uber and other rideshare drivers operating in London. Some don’t seem to have much more than a fleeting relationship with the city, relying entirely on navigation apps to get around.
There’s no shame in not knowing the streets of a city as large as London in great depth, but the problems arise when their chosen app gets something wrong, gets confused or simply hasn’t registered that there’s an issue on the roads, and suddenly you’re at the mercy of someone who has very little idea how to navigate the city or where they are.
A rideshare driver in this position usually just sits there, waiting for the app to catch up or to work out that there’s a problem, and by the time it does, it may be too late and there’s no way back. You’re stuck in the traffic jam and you’re just going to have to wait it out while watching your day pass you by.
A Black Cab driver isn’t relying on an app. They know the main roads, the back streets, and the rat-runs, and if they see that one route is snarled up, they almost always have an alternative they can try. And if that doesn’t work out any better, they often have a plan C.
They won’t always beat London traffic. Nobody can. But your odds are vastly better in a Black Cab than in a car driven by someone staring at a phone mounted on the dashboard that may or may not be working properly.
Secondly, Black Cab drivers are, on the whole, reasonably good drivers. Sure, they’re not perfect, but I can’t remember the last time I was in a Black Cab and wondering how they had managed to pass their driving test (of if they had passed their driving test at all).
I can’t say the same for a significant number of the rideshare drivers I’ve encountered in London. Quite a few seem bemused by the concept of driving and because they are constantly having to check one or more navigation apps taped precariously to their dash, they’re often not looking where they’re going and, unsurprisingly, that can cause issues.
Thirdly, Black Cabs are permitted to use a quite a few (but not all) of the bus lanes across central London. Private vehicles, including every Uber, FreeNow and Bolt car on the road, are not.
That can be a big advantage for the Black Cab and as you may one day find out, it’s quite nice being allowed to use a virtually empty bus lane while the lane to your right is full of stationary traffic which hasn’t gone more than a yard in the last 10 minutes. It’s a real time saver.
Fourthly, you don’t need an app to get a Black Cab. Black Cabs can be hailed as they’re driving past you on the road or they can be picked up from any number of stands around the city. A bit like a New York cab, only considerably more civilized.
You’re not at the mercy of an algorithm and when you hail a Black Cab they don’t know how far (or not) you’re going and so can’t decide that your journey is not worth doing (it’s illegal for a Black Cab to refuse a journey within Greater London as long as it’s not longer than 12 miles or expected to take over an hour).
If you’re struggling to find a Black Cab, which can happen if it has been raining for hours and demand has spiked, or if you need picking up from a quiet side street that Black Cabs don’t typically drive down, you can resort to calling one from an app if you need to.
The Gett app works exclusively with licensed Black Cab drivers and is built specifically around booking one to come to you, and, ironically, the FreeNow and Uber apps will also allow you to hail a Black Cab – you just have to make sure that you select “Black Cab” rather than any of the other options.
In my experience all three apps make trips more expensive than they would have been had you managed to hail a Black Cab off the street, but if there aren’t any cabs driving past you, this is another option.
Finally, as far as Black Cab v rideshare goes, there’s the space on offer.
A Black Cab seats four people comfortably and five at a push, provided you’re not also hauling a mountain of luggage and none of the passengers are … erm … quite large.
If there are two of you, the amount of room you get is enormous. There are apartments in New York that offer less space.
You won’t get that from a standard rideshare booking so you’d have to upgrade to an Uber XL or equivalent if you wanted to attempt to mimic the space in a Black Cab, and even then, plenty of vehicles that technically qualify as “XL” are anything but spacious once you’ve got more than two people and a few bags inside.
Black Cabs as better. It’s just how it is.
An anecdote
Over the years, I’ve had more than my fair share of bad rideshare experiences in London. Bad drivers, a few near misses, one very near miss (my driver failed to stop at a junction and we nearly got t-boned by another vehicle), drivers canceling rides for no reason 10 minutes after accepting them, drivers having no idea where anything in London is … the list goes on.
But there was one incident a little over a year ago which while in no way dangerous, was so aggravating that it made me vow to never use a rideshare service in London again.
It started with a stay at the Park Hyatt London River Thames and in an effort to make sure our evening got off to a nice start (we were heading to a celebration dinner) I decided to order an “Executive” car from one of the rideshare companies.
I won’t say which one, but its name starts with a “U” and ends in “-ber”
Our car took about 15 minutes to arrive (not too bad) and it was a nice Land Rover (of some sort) which was a good start.
Our destination was St James’s in the heart of London and as anyone who knows the area around the Park Hyatt will tell you, the logical way to get there from the hotel is to start by going across bridge just seconds away from the property – Vauxhall Bridge.
Our driver, however, decided not to take that route and, instead, set off in the opposite direction – the direction from which he had just come (I know because I had tracked his arrival on the app).
Presumably, this was the direction his app had told him to go, but within a minute we were in the mother of all traffic jams. And this jam went on and on and on (including over the bridge that our driver or his app has chosen as the best way to go).
To cut a long story short, a trip which should have taken 20-25 minutes ended up taking a little over an hour. We would have got out and walked, but it was cold, we weren’t dressed for the cold, and it had started to rain, so walking wasn’t really an option.
Now here’s the thing …
Right now, you may be thinking that this wasn’t the driver’s fault, because he must have been following directions given to him by the app.
Well, there two things I can say about that.
The first thing to say is that, regardless of what the app suggested, a competent driver would have known not to take the route we were taken (he went the wrong way and took the wrong bridge).
The second thing to say is that to get to the Park Hyatt, this driver had come past the very traffic jam that he drove us into, so he knew it was there and yet he still decided to blindly follow what his navigation app was telling him (assuming that it was telling him anything at all).
The lack of common sense on display was staggering, and that’s not an issue you’re likely to encounter with a Black Cab driver … or with a Tube train! 🙂
Bottom line
Considering Uber, FreeNow, Bolt or some other rideshare service when you need to get around central London? Don’t bother with any of them.
If you can and it’s not raining, walk. You’ll probably love London and you’ll see a lot more of it this way.
If you’re rather be transported, try the Tube, it’s surprisingly good (try to avoid peak time travel when it can get very busy) and a lot of Londoners have no idea just how good they’ve got it – they should try living in LA where you have to drive to the nearest subway stop!
If car is what you want, however, take a Black Cab. Yes, you’ll pay more, but the overall experience will be so much better than if you default to whatever godforsaken rideshare service you normally default to.
The driver will know how to drive, they’ll know where they’re going, they’ll know how to avoid traffic, they’ll use common sense, they’ll use lanes that other cars cannot, and you’ll almost certainly be comfortable. It’s worth the extra cost.
