Medallions To Ambassadors: Iconic Taxis Around The World

Lewis Taxis • 23 March 2023

Around the world, taxis and taxi services are a distinctive part of every city and the people within it. More than a service that gets you from A to B, taxi firms around the globe reflect the culture of where they’re from, helping define the experiences and memories of the city. Each country has its own taxi service culture, vehicle choice, and other unique characteristics.

Read on to learn more about a few of most iconic taxis around the world and find out what makes them so special.

London’s “Black Cab”

Dubbed “Hackney carriages”, Londons’ black cabs are an iconic vehicular reflection of England’s capital. To drive and be a part of this citywide taxi service, you must pass The Knowledge, a rigorous test that requires detailed knowledge of London’s streets. This involves memorising 320 routes, 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks within a six mile radius of Charing Cross, a process that can take around 2-4 years to pass.

There are 21,100 black taxis in London, with a third of them now being the electric LEVC TX, a purpose-built taxi designed to comply with the city’s new zero-emissions regulations. The vehicles are capable of a whopping 25ft turning circle, allowing them to still be manoeuvrable in tight spaces, something perfect for London’s tight Victorian streets.

New York’s Yellow Taxi

Immortalised in movies and postcards of “the Big Apple”, New York’s yellow taxis are able to pick up passengers in all of the city’s five boroughs. These taxis are known as medallion taxis, a system established in 1937 as a government limitation on the supply of taxis, which required that a medallion be purchased for the right to operate a taxi

The yellow hue of the taxis began being widely adopted in 1967 to help cut down on unofficial drivers and make official taxi services more readily recognizable. Whilst licensed by the local government, New York’s yellow taxis are operated by private taxi firms, with around 13,587 medallions cruising around the city.

Kolkata’s Ambassador Taxi

Hindustan Motors’ Ambassador Classic cabs became the taxi most synonymous with the East Indian city of Kolkata. Introduced to the streets in 1958, their reliability and sheer popularity gave them the reputation of being the “King of Indian Roads”.

The Ambassador originated in Britain, being based on the Morris Oxford series III, a vehicle produced by Morris Motors Limited’s Oxford factory in 1956. 900,000 Ambassador’s were manufactured over 50 years, and despite being out of production in 2013, there are still many to be found on India’s roads.

Lewis Taxis

Whilst not quite traversing Kolkata’s dusty roads or cruising along Manhattan’s geometric avenues, if you need a taxi service in Coventry, we can help. For more than fifty years, Lewis Taxis have been a taxi firm dedicated to delivering the best taxi services possible. We are specialists in local runs and airport transfers, as well as corporate and long-distance travel.