Which is the best: the Knowledge vs Uber vs satnav

Getting around major cities is hardly stress-free these days, and that applies in spades to our capital city. Roadworks, traffic jams, lights not working, ‘incidents’ – it all means that it’s not enough to simply plan your route, you have to also be able to react to events as you go. But which is the best way to go?

We planned a trip that would go from Richmond station to Waterloo station – and we simply used the train as a way of getting back to base because we were going to try this route three ways.

By official black London cab, by Uber and by us driving ourselves. You’ll note that the last two use sat nav for navigation, while the first uses The Knowledge, the formidable databank of information, intuition and whatever else goes into the mind of your black cabbie.

And so it was that we found ourselves hailing a black cab outside Richmond station one weekday morning. Naturally we hadn’t gone far before we dived off down into sideroads since the driver had seen that traffic was piling up on the A305. We eventually made the A3 intersection after some crawling traffic, and then we speeded up, aided no end by the taxi’s ability to travel down bus lanes, which were mercifully clear of buses – obviously if you were going by bus you might not have felt quite the same.

And there we were, at Waterloo, having made good time. Later that morning we hit the Uber app back at Richmond to summon a car. Within six minutes we were clambering into Daahir’s Vauxhall Zafira and on our way to Waterloo once again.

It’s best to think of the cabbie driver as a captain of an old sailing ship. The ride is lumpy, as if there’s a swell, and the old captain seems to simply smell a change or something over the horizon. They often seem to have a sixth sense as to what’s going on. They’re definitely not pirates.

Uber is still operating in London, while the company appeals to keep its licence in the capital. The Zafira was an easier and quieter ride than the old black cab, but of course the driver is depending on his sat nav. This took us a different route into London, going over the Hammersmith Flyover and down around Sloane Square.

We were at Waterloo once more. Time then to hop on the train back to Richmond and get in our own car, the Astra equipped with a good sat nav: the Garmin DriveSmart 61 which comes with a lifetime of updates for UK and European maps, traffic alerts, parking info and more, for the £249.95 price.

Tapping in the destination, we ended up following the same route as the Uber driver, with the Garmin spotting traffic jams and offering us quicker routes as the journey developed. It looked like it would be taking us into heavy traffic around Parliament Square but it was right, traffic was light and, for the third time, we found outselves at Waterloo station. Time to take stock.

You might not want to drive yourself into London. Obviously getting to Waterloo then brings up the issues of parking, congestion charge and much more. Actually though it proved the quickest. And this simply used equipment you already owned anyway, the car and the sat nav, so it just cost fuel and any wear and tear – and stressed nerves – to get you there.

The Uber was slower but it was pretty cheap and we could let someone else worry about the driving and any decisions en route.

The taxi was the most expensive option but it proved faster than the Uber driver – the black cab was only four minutes slower than us in the car, with us taking every update we could from the Garmin. That’s impressive for our old captain.