Uncomfortable and claustrophobic, taxi cabs are not designed with the passenger in mind. Isn’t it time they made a cab that put the customer first?

“The customer is always right” captures the marketplace ethic that customer satisfaction is the best way to sell things and make money. It is widely heralded, perhaps less widely demonstrated, and roundly ignored by the taxi cab industry – at least when it comes to the design of cabs.

There is some version of the taxi in most countries around the globe, and they abound in big cities. New York City has 13,000 taxis, London 14,000, and 45,000 in Shanghai. There are 275,000 in Japan. There must be 10 million or more worldwide.

And they all share one thing: the customer comes last.

Picture the normal cab. It is a standard four-door sedan, the local equivalent of the Ford Crown Victoria. Such cars are chosen because they are dependable and durable. Like most nice cars, they have a roomy and well appointed front seat with good visibility and agreeable amenities, like a heating or cooling system at foot and head levels. That is the front seat.

In the back seat – which is designed for the rare occasion someone might actually sit in it – there is less room, no head and foot blowers, and not much visibility. It isn’t easy to get in and out of. If the driver is big, the front seat has likely been pushed back, reducing legroom even further. In many cities, the taxi has been fitted with a wall between the front and back seats with a sliding window. The additional space this takes up comes at the expense of the passenger.

I had knee surgery a number of years ago, and could not drive for a few months, but didn’t think that would be a problem because I could take a taxi where I needed to go. Then a colleague and I tried to get in a cab together and discovered there was no room in the back for my inflexible leg. Over the two months, I would have to manoeuvre myself into the front passenger seat of a cab, usually after the driver had grumpily removed his manuals, lunch, and accumulated paraphernalia.

It struck me that taxi design has it backwards. It puts the driver first, and the customer last.

I looked into taxi design on the web, and found that the prevalent concern was environmental. There was some movement towards using hybrid engine vehicles. In Vancouver and Victoria, for example, much of the taxi fleet is comprised of the Toyota Prius.

But there has been very little work done on taxi design, and none which has made its way into production and so into actual taxi fleets.

The work that has been done is quite good and clearly reflects an effort to improve passenger experience. There are designs for a much roomier back seat area, not dissimilar to the iconic black London Cab. Unlike the London Cab, in these designs, the roof is higher, which eliminates the crab-walk scuttling one does in London to reach the back seat, and the old heave-ho required to exit.

In some new designs, given that most city trips are short, the seats are quite high, letting the passenger almost lean back against the seat rather than sink down into it (more like how one might stand in a bus or subway). The passenger compartment has large windows, including on the roof. Like a London Cab, the driver has a separate compartment, and luggage can be placed on the adjacent floor where the front passenger sits in conventional taxis.

New taxi design has mechanical appropriateness too: fuel efficient engines; lighter weight; short turning radii; sliding doors which don’t swing out into traffic; replaceable bumpers and side panels to keep them looking good; monitoring and communication technology for safety and security; hydraulics for lowering the body for wheelchair access; and moulded interiors, which allow for regular high pressure cleaning and less wear and tear. They have stripped down capability because they are rarely asked to travel at high speeds over long distances, which most sedans are designed to do.

Perhaps the most puzzling question is why one of the big auto companies has not seized this as a potential market. With worldwide demand, turning out a vehicle designed around the passenger, with real urban applicability, at a competitive price should be attractive. The lower price, resulting from having to put less into the taxi, should attract fleet owners. But this has not gone beyond the design charrette stage in any significant way.

My knees and back, like those of my ageing colleagues, await salvation from the taxi world.