Pauline
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An amazing long and detailed article about the years of training to become a London Taxi driver.
New York Times - The Knowledge, London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test, Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS
Culture, By JODY ROSEN, November 10, 2014
The examination to become a London cabby is possibly the most difficult test in the world — demanding years of study to memorize the labyrinthine city’s 25,000 streets and any business or landmark on them. As GPS and Uber imperil this tradition, is there an argument for learning as an end in itself?
From the article: "From the time that London first began to spread beyond the walls surrounding the Roman city, it kept sprawling outward, absorbing villages, enlarging the spider-web snarl of little roads, multiplying the maze. Take a look sometime at a London street map. What a mess: It is a preposterously complex tangle of veins and capillaries, the cardiovascular system of a monster."
New York Times - The Knowledge, London’s Legendary Taxi-Driver Test, Puts Up a Fight in the Age of GPS
Culture, By JODY ROSEN, November 10, 2014
The examination to become a London cabby is possibly the most difficult test in the world — demanding years of study to memorize the labyrinthine city’s 25,000 streets and any business or landmark on them. As GPS and Uber imperil this tradition, is there an argument for learning as an end in itself?
From the article: "From the time that London first began to spread beyond the walls surrounding the Roman city, it kept sprawling outward, absorbing villages, enlarging the spider-web snarl of little roads, multiplying the maze. Take a look sometime at a London street map. What a mess: It is a preposterously complex tangle of veins and capillaries, the cardiovascular system of a monster."