Why taxis have yellow and not red lines

Many taxis in Kenya and around the world have either a yellow line or are all in the iconic bumblebee yellow colour.

There’s the exception of the ‘London taxi’ that once became part of Nairobi. They were roomy, black boxy vehicles that were brought to the streets of Nairobi by one Ketan Somaia who was the broker of the deal. He imported over 500 taxis that took Nairobi by storm from 1988.

The reconditioned London-look taxis were bought on loan by the taxi operators, but the deal later went burst due to that small, but greasy matter, of unavailability of spare parts.

Like a gold-digging mistresses, the London-look cab was very high maintenance.

The London taxi was introduced in England after the World War II in 1945 and are no longer just black in colour as people imagine.

Unlike Kenyan taxi drivers whom you have to give directions, London ‘cabbies’ have to master a test called ‘The Knowledge’ which requires that they memorise 320 routes, 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks before they’re allowed to operate. It takes three years for one to pass the ‘The Knowledge’ test!

The name taxi is fleshed from ‘taximeter,’ that calculates fare (although here in Kenya it’s calculated by kuelewana). But why the yellow colour?

Well, the story goes that in 1915, one John Hertz who founded car rental giant Hertz, the world’s largest, wanted to unify his taxi fleet, colour speaking, that is.

He thus commissioned the University of Chicago to “scientifically ascertain” the rangi that most stood out from a distance. Yellow it was.

Before Hertz, another businessman Albert Rockwell had taxis sporting the yellow colour. No science was involved. Yellow was his wife’s favourite colour and Albert chose it to please her!

New York made yellow the official colour of its taxis in 1967 and it became a world visual standard since.