Taxi Cab
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This taxi trivia quiz has 91 free questions with answers and covers the whole meter. One half is the history of cabs: the first horse-drawn hackneys of Paris and London, the electric Bersey cabs and Daimler taximeter cars of 1897, why New York went yellow, what The Knowledge tests, and how medallion prices soared past $1 million and then collapsed. The other half goes global and on screen: Tokyo's driver-operated doors, Hong Kong's colour-coded fleet, Mexico City's Beetle cabs, tuk-tuks, Checker cabs and Uber's early days. Taxis have a screen life too, so the sitcom Taxi gets its due, from the Sunshine Cab Company and Louie De Palma's cage to Latka, Reverend Jim and the show's 18 Emmys, alongside Taxi Driver, Luc Besson's French Taxi films, the Queen Latifah remake, Cash Cab, Taxicab Confessions, Collateral and Night on Earth. Every answer has been checked against a reference page, so you can argue the results with confidence. Play through the 91 questions, see your score, and share it with anyone who has ever hailed a cab.
30 of 91 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which city did gasoline-powered taxis begin operating in 1899?
Paris
Gasoline-powered taxicabs began operating in Paris in 1899, followed by London in 1903, and New York in 1907.
Q 02One etymology traces the 'hackney' cab to the French 'haquenée', which meant what?
A horse for hire
The origin is disputed: many attribute the word to the London borough of Hackney, while others favour the French haquenée, an easy-riding horse that was often let out for hire.
Q 03In what year did New York City order every licensed taxi painted yellow?
1967
In 1967 New York ordered every licensed cab painted yellow so official taxis could be told at a glance from unlicensed 'gypsy' cabs.
Q 04Who played Travis Bickle, the 'You talkin' to me?' cabbie of Martin Scorsese's 1976 Taxi Driver?
Robert De Niro
Robert De Niro improvised the mirror scene's 'You talkin' to me?'; the script only said that Travis talks to himself in the mirror.
Q 05Which of these is decided by the passenger rather than worked out by a taxi's meter?
Driver's tip
A Driver's tip is whatever the passenger chooses; the meter itself combines a starting charge, the distance travelled and time spent waiting in traffic.
Q 06Who took the wheel on January 1, 1915 as New York City's first female taxi driver?
Wilma Russey
Russey had spent more than a year as a car mechanic at a West 50th Street garage first, and became known for driving in a leopard-skin hat and stole.
Q 07What nickname did Walter Bersey's 1897 London electric cabs earn from their noise?
Hummingbirds
Bersey's battery cabs, on London streets from August 1897, were nicknamed 'Hummingbirds' for the hum of their electric motors.
Q 08The Daimler Victoria, the first motorised taximeter cab, began operating in June 1897 in which city?
Stuttgart
Friedrich Greiner's Daimler Motorized Cab Company put the taximeter-equipped Daimler Victoria into service in Stuttgart in June 1897, the first motor taxi.
Q 09When did horse-drawn hackney carriage services begin operating in both Paris and London?
The 1600s
Both cities had horse-drawn hackney services in the 1600s: London had about 20 hackney coaches for hire by 1625, and Paris's fiacres took their name from the Hôtel de Saint-Fiacre, where they were hired out in the mid-1600s.
Q 10Who played Alex, the veteran cabbie at the heart of the sitcom Taxi?
Judd Hirsch
Judd Hirsch played Alex, the one driver in the garage who admits cab-driving is his real job; the role won him two Primetime Emmys, in 1981 and 1983.
Q 11London black-cab drivers must pass 'The Knowledge', covering roughly how many central London streets?
25,000
The Knowledge covers roughly 25,000 streets within six miles of Charing Cross, plus some 320 set runs and thousands of landmarks; most candidates take three to four years to pass.
Q 12What does UK law call a taxi licensed to ply for hire on the street?
Hackney carriage
Unlike private hire vehicles, which must be pre-booked, a hackney carriage may cruise the streets looking for passengers.
Q 13Which two-wheeled London cab, patented in 1834 by a York architect, was light enough for a single horse?
Hansom cab
The hansom cab was designed and patented in 1834 by Joseph Hansom as a significant improvement on the old hackney carriages, being lighter and requiring only one horse.
Q 21In the sitcom Taxi (1978-83), the drivers work the night shift out of which fictional garage?
Sunshine Cab Company
The Sunshine Cab Company garage was the drivers' base; most treated the night shift as a stopgap while chasing other careers under dispatcher Louie De Palma.
Q 22Who played Louie De Palma, the caged-in dispatcher who bullies the drivers on the sitcom Taxi?
Danny DeVito
Danny DeVito won the part by walking into his audition, asking 'Who wrote this shit?' and throwing the script on the table. Louie was the show's villain for five seasons.
Q 23On Taxi, Andy Kaufman's Latka developed a smooth-talking lounge-lizard alter ego who went by what name?
Vic Ferrari
Q 14The TAXI sign on a London black cab's roof lights up and goes dark; what is it there to do?
To show whether it is available for hire
The sign is lit to show whether it is available for hire: light on means the cab is free, light off means it is taken or off duty.
Q 15In 1907 Harry N. Allen started the New York Taxicab Company by importing how many gasoline cars from France?
65
Allen launched the New York Taxicab Company in October 1907 with 65 gasoline-powered cabs imported from France, the first metered motor taxis in the city.
Q 16Travis Bickle, the insomniac cabbie of Scorsese's 1976 Taxi Driver, is a former Marine who served in which war?
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War is where Travis served as a Marine before driving nights through a decaying New York; his spiral ends with him turning vigilante.
Q 17In taxi jargon, what is the fixed amount added to the fare the moment you get into the cab?
The drop
The drop is where the fare starts before the wheels turn; after it, everything is metered by distance and waiting time.
Q 18Which city's taxi fleet is famously known for its 'black cabs'?
London
London's black cabs are officially hackney carriages, and Transport for London's rules even fix their turning circle, which is why they can U-turn on a narrow street.
Q 19What legal term covers taxi companies, airlines and railroads because they offer transport to the general public?
Common carriers
Common carriers hold themselves out to carry anyone who pays the fare, which is what distinguishes them from private carriers who choose their customers.
Q 20New York's 1937 Haas Act froze the yellow-cab fleet and created which transferable licence?
Medallions
Medallions, the transferable licences created by the 1937 freeze, became the scarce asset: the fleet size barely changed for decades, so the licence rather than the car carried the value.
Vic Ferrari was Latka's swaggering alter ego; the writers gave Latka multiple personality disorder so Andy Kaufman could play other characters on the show.
Q 24Who played the burnt-out 1960s casualty 'Reverend' Jim Ignatowski on Taxi?
Christopher Lloyd
Jim first appeared as a guest star in 1978 and joined the main cast the following year, a few years before Lloyd became Doc Brown in Back to the Future.
Q 25After ABC cancelled Taxi in 1982, which network picked the sitcom up for its fifth and final season?
NBC
NBC picked up Taxi for the 1982-83 season after ABC dropped it; for a while it had looked as though a premium cable channel would rescue the show instead.
Q 26Across its five seasons, how many Primetime Emmy Awards did the sitcom Taxi win?
18
Taxi won 18 Primetime Emmys across its five seasons, including Outstanding Comedy Series three years running from 1979 to 1981.
Q 27Who composed 'Angela', the mellow instrumental theme of the sitcom Taxi?
Bob James
Bob James wrote 'Angela' for a scene in the third episode, 'Blind Date', and the producers liked it more than the up-tempo theme they had planned.
Q 28The opening titles of the sitcom Taxi show a Checker cab crossing which East River bridge?
Queensboro
The Queensboro Bridge shot of a Checker cab ran through all five seasons, making the bridge one of the most-seen pieces of New York infrastructure on 1970s and '80s television.
Q 29On Taxi, Marilu Henner's Elaine Nardo only drives part-time; what is her day job?
Gallery receptionist
Elaine's day job is gallery receptionist at a Manhattan art gallery; a divorced mother of two, she was the rare driver with a real career outside the garage.
Q 30Which future co-developer of The Simpsons was one of the four co-creators of the sitcom Taxi?
James L. Brooks
James L. Brooks created Taxi with Stan Daniels, David Davis and Ed. Weinberger, all Mary Tyler Moore Show veterans; he later developed The Simpsons with Matt Groening and Sam Simon.