Reader-added tags consist of "Happens a lot overseas" and "Survey for a certain Miss Tsuchigumo".

The survey puts on its thinking cab:

When do you take a taxi?
• When I'm tired and don't want to walk
• When I've got a lot of luggage
• When it rains
• When it's late at night and there's no buses
• When I've got to get to the airport in 1 minute

As someone living in Taiwan, taxis are generally very convenient. But when I'm in Taipei, I generally use the subway station which travels to just about anywhere.

And yeah, Taxis are indeed much more expensive when traveling to the airport.

That sounds normal for taxi rides from the airport to downtown in most major cities. Taxis from LGA/JFK to midtown would run about $45-$50 (the buses and trains would cost an order of magnitude less, but would take a bit longer, and Suwako help you if you need to transfer and don't know your way around the NYC transit system)

Cliff_Edge said:

That sounds normal for taxi rides from the airport to downtown in most major cities. Taxis from LGA/JFK to midtown would run about $45-$50 (the buses and trains would cost an order of magnitude less, but would take a bit longer, and Suwako help you if you need to transfer and don't know your way around the NYC transit system)

You may as well not take anything but a taxi or car service to LGA since there's no straight shot there from anywhere in midtown, bus or subway. Transfers are inevitable. At least JFK has a straight line train from Grand Central.

That said, Taiwan taxis definitely sound much like NYC ones, perhaps a wee bit cheaper.

How far are we talking about for a roughly 4 USD fare? That seems ridiculously cheap for even a short cab ride.

Also, I thought opening the cab door yourself has always been a given whenever I've encountered them. Are there seriously places where the driver is expected to pander on you that much?

Iruel said:

How far are we talking about for a roughly 4 USD fare? That seems ridiculously cheap for even a short cab ride.

Also, I thought opening the cab door yourself has always been a given whenever I've encountered them. Are there seriously places where the driver is expected to pander on you that much?

I'd love for them to do that in The Netherlands, a country where taxi's are ungodly expensive compared to most surrounding countries.

Iruel said:

Also, I thought opening the cab door yourself has always been a given whenever I've encountered them. Are there seriously places where the driver is expected to pander on you that much?

Japanese taxis use automatic doors, operated remotely by the driver. (video)

stoicapple said:
I'd love for them to do that in The Netherlands, a country where taxi's are ungodly expensive compared to most surrounding countries.

Confirmed. In NL, riding a Taxi is like destroying your wallet. It is like the last transportation type you want to use unless you're extremely beaten/tired and just want to get to your plane/hotel