On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 23:39:19 +0000, Gawnsoft wrote:

On Tue, 10 Aug 2004 16:51:07 +0100, "Paul Weaver"
wrote (more or less):

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
The large number of taxis in provincial cities (I cite Liverpool in
particular, with over 1500 licensed taxis) could not be sustained if
patronised only by "rich" people (who, in places outside London,
encounter far less restriction on car-use anyway, and are to be found
in very small numbers).

Sorry, I didn't notice this was anywhere but uk.transport.london. In
London, taxi's are more expensive then concorde - about £3 per mile. I
know that even black cabs in chester are around £1/mile, a reasonable
cost (especially given the lack of any other means of transport)

And given that the cost is per vehicle mile, rather than per passenger
mile.

As is a car cost. Sure, if you're 4 or 5 people in a taxi it's not the end
of the world price wise, but then a car with 5 people in costs about 5p
per person per mile including fixed car ownership costs, or
London-Manchester for £20 return. The average load factor in devon is
1.4 people per taxi (http://www.cfit.gov.uk/research/psbi/lek/a1051/). No
more details, whether that includes the driver (in which case load factor
is 0.4, less then half that of the worst case car scenario), or if not -
includes times when there are no passangers.