All over the world, taxi drivers seem to love to scam tourists. Hapless visitors with no idea what a taxi from A to B should cost are so easy to drive around for an extra ten euros or so.
In New York City, they’ve made an effort to combat the problem by adding video maps in cabs (so you can see when you aren’t between your pickup point and your destination) and charging flat fees to bring people into Manhattan from the local airports. Now, in Rome, there’s a new method of keeping drivers honest afoot.
According to Reuters, Radiotaxi 3570 in Rome is “trying to improve the bad name of the city’s cabbies” by allowing visitors to pay for their ride from the airport into the city in advance, even from their home countries. You will soon be able to book online and request a driver who speaks English, German, French or Spanish, and a text message payment/reservation service is in the works, as well.
Though we’d never scoff at a trip to Rome simply because the taxi drivers have a bad reputation, this development is heartening; it shows that Rome wants and appreciates its foreign guests.
[via Reuters]