I’ve been seeing these ads on bus shelters and around the place for a while now and I keep making mental note to blog about them.
It’s a simple offering — at 2am in the morning when you really, really want to get home, it’s far too easy to give in to the hords of drivers kerb-crawling around London with their windows open shouting ‘mineeee-cab?’ Far too easy, especially if you’re slightly (or totally) drunk.
Now and again, shock-tactic adverts have been used by the authorities, specifically aimed at young women, encouraging them not to take unlicensed cabs by threatening rape. Hard hitting, but, I hope, effective. Although, consider this fact (from the Cabwise site):
Each month 10 women in London are raped or assaulted by men pretending to be cab drivers.
It’s all very well telling folk that they shouldn’t take an unlicensed minicab. But what are you to do at 2am when you’re walking by a deserted Euston Station and all the last trains home have all since departed? Well, turn your attention to the Cabwise poster on the bus shelter!
Text HOME to 60835 and the service will respond with the numbers of one local taxi firm and two licensed mini cab operators.
Alas it’s not free — 35p plus your standard network rate (so almost 50p in total) and, it’s not available on Virgin or 3.
More at www.london.gov/cabwise/.
