Couple more to add, from a London regular: 4) London taxis are incredibly expensive in inefficient. I did a thorough comparison of them against train and car t

Couple more to add, from a London regular: 4) London taxis are incredibly expensive in inefficient. I did a thorough comparison of them against train and car travel into the city considering the other 4 people in the car with me (I travel efficiently). I now drive into the city and pay for parking in NCP/hospital car parks. I don't get charged for congestion charge because I drive an exempt vehicle. This happens once a week for me and it's cheap and very easy. The CC zone is pretty easy to get around and the supposed bus lane advantage is null as they have loading bays all up and down them and people don't give way to taxis and busses pulling into normal traffic. 5) London taxis don't always take the most efficient route. They take the msot profitable. This isn't universally true but I've been in many a taxi taking complicated back street routes when the main route would suffice. They are charged both on time and distance but distance is considerably more profitable. So if there's more than 2 people in the car, the car is CC exempt, even if you pay for parking, getting around London is bliss and cheap. Plus you can stick the radio on whatever you want rather than Capital FM which is all cabbies seem to listen to.