Woe le taxi
I was stuck in traffic behind a taxi earlier today, and spotted - or rather, couldn’t miss - a huge LCD screen sitting behind the driver’s head. It was showing a medley of ads, news snippets and so on, in a package that I assume is similar to the really annoying stuff you get on some trains now. Although it’s for the entertainment of passengers, it’s crystal-clear when you’re in a car behind it - and it’s nearly impossible to take your eyes off.
The downsides of in-car videos have been apparent for some time - amusingly, in the US there have been cases of “drive-by porning” where unsuspecting commuters are subjected to porn clips courtesy of the car next to them - but a giant, back-facing screen in a taxi is downright dangerous, even when its content is perfectly innocuous.
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Comments
> Although it’s for the entertainment of passengers …
Nope. I’ve been in one of them bloody taxis. It’s just a way of shoving adverts down your throat. I wouldn’t mind if the massive payment they must be getting from the advertising agencies reduced the cab fare. As if. And then they want a tip.
> was this in Glasgow?
Drumchapel :-o
> It’s just a way of shoving adverts down your throat.
True. The worst examples I’ve experienced weren’t in taxis, though: in a Thomas Cook flight (so incredibly loud it made your teeth rattle and overpowered a hacked iPod playing heavy metal), on the bus from Stansted Airport into London, and on the Heathrow Express. It’s not so much the advertising - I’ve become resigned to the fact that you’ll get blasted by ads wherever you go - but the sheer volume of the things. Airport buses and trains are for sleeping on, I think, and holiday flights are for trying not to think about cigarettes :)
Next time I get one in a taxi, I’m going to tell them to turn it off. And if they don’t, I’m getting out.
There are loads of them in Edinburgh - was this in Glasgow? *Sigh* - why can’t people just be content to look out the window any more?
Laura