Cars that are not privately owned by people that drive them themselves, but by (usually smallish) companies operating them. I.e., there's a driver inside who will drive you wherever you want to. If everything works out, he will charge you by the kilometre for the distance traveled, if it doesn't work out, he may rape and/or kill you. Taxis are also called cabs resp. taxi-cabs. In Germany, they're beige, in the U.S., usually yellow. Nearly all German taxis are Mercedes-Benz diesels. Older ones thus often emit gruesome noises that can set your teeth on edge.

While in New York, every third car is a taxi-cab, and you just need to wave your hand to make one stop, in Germany you need to give the taxi company a call or go to a special parking lot where lots of taxis wait around, bored drivers inside reading the BILD-Zeitung. On the other hand, German taxi drivers usually speak much better English than New York taxi drivers. For information on German taxi drivers in New York, watch Jim Jarmusch's film Night on Earth.

Yellow cabs driven in The United States by men who speak little English.
Black cabs driven in England by men who speak too much English.
Beige cabs driven in Germany by men who speak perfect English.
Rusty cabs driven in India by men who speak some English but can shout Hindi/Telgu/Tamil/Kamada/Udu/Gujarati/Bengali/Punjabi.

Trivia: Stephen Fry owns his own black taxi cab.

Sydney, Australia
Taxi Fares inclusive of Goods and Services tax (GST) effective from 1 July 2000
Hiring charge: $2.35
Distance rate: (Tariff 1 - 6am-10pm daily) $1.32/km (Tariff 2 - 10pm-6am daily) Tariff 1 + 20%
Radio booking fee: $1.10
Waiting time: $36.84/hr (61.4 cents/min)
Luggage rates: First 25kg no charge, then 10 cents per subsequent 25kg or part thereof, maximum payable 55 cents
Toll & ferry charges: The hirer must pay the full toll and ferry charges which are GST inclusive that apply to a journey.
Note a return toll is payable on the Sydney Harbour Bridge and in the Sydney Harbour Tunnel.

Attribution: Sydney Taxis Combined Taxi #T-2272, sticker affixed to driver's cage, 23-July-2000

Taxi is a great French 1998 movie directed by Gérard Pirès and written by Luc Besson. This is the story of a guy in Marseilles who decides to quit pizza delivery, buy a beefed up Peugot 406 and taxi. He has a real talent for insulting cops and german criminals driving Mercedes. This movie has changed my driving style. Taxi 2 is far worse.

London's main breed of Taxi is the Black Cab. These cars-for-hire are generally used as transport for the rich, and used as population control for the poor or studious. Since these Taxis outnumber cars by a ratio of two to one, there isn't enough custom to allow them to opperate solely as a swift and reliable means of transportation. To broaden their income stream, the Taxi drivers of London also work in the age old profession of 'Crushing on the Side'.

'Crushing on the Side' is, put simply, the practice of running over pedestrians who don't look like they may be potential customers, and taking their valuables, up to and including organs. This practice was legalized by Margaret Thatcher, as a measure to 'rid the streets of students and filth'. The traditional black colouring of the London Taxi is a practical night-time camouflage, although Taxis often go for 'dazzle' pattern paint, which doubles up as advertizing. Often, packs of Taxis will hide in ambush outside student halls, crushing any that attempt to leave through the front doors.

The practice has come under fire from local councils in recent years, for the mess it causes. However, it has been staunchly supported by the tourism agency, tourists enjoying the 'real London experience' of having a shelf-stacker plastered 2mm thick across the wind-screen. Whether a boon to the city, or a mess causing nuisance, the practice is just another quaint custom that makes Great Britain what it is.

To taxi also refers to the actions of an aircraft moving itself around on the ground. Specifically, using its own propulsion to maneuver around in order to reach a destination also on the ground. Aircraft will taxi from a terminal or ramp area to the runway on which they intend to take off; they will, after landing, taxi from the runway to their ultimate parking spot. Aircraft being towed are not taxiing, nor are aircraft which are accelerating across the ground in order to take off or which have just touched down and are still braking from flying speed. Typically, once an aircraft has either released its brakes after landing, or turned off the runway it has landed on, it is considered to be taxiing.