In most other types of public transport, such as a bus, tram, or train, the rider does not get to choose the locations where they want to get picked up or dropped off. These vehicles often take certain roads or follow a very specific route. Because of this, they usually do not stop exactly where people want to go.
Riding a taxi is a lot like having your own car, but you don't drive it. You only tell the taxi driver where you want to go and he or she will take you there. How much you pay for the ride, in most cases, depends on how far you are going from where you get on. It is common for the price for a taxi ride to be more expensive than other forms of transport.
The first taxi-type system started in Paris and London in the early 17th century. These were carts pulled by (carriages) and could be hired. The monarchies that ruled these cities controlled the rules. In the 19th century, Hansom cabs were mostly used because of their higher level of safety.
The 1891 invention by German Wilhelm Bruhn of the taximeter helped establish the modern taxi. The first modern meter-equipped taxicab was the Daimler Victoria, built by Gottlieb Daimler in 1897. The first motorized taxi company began operating in Stuttgart the same year.
The term "taximeter" is an adaptation of the French word 'taximètre', and the German word 'taxameter'. It means measuring a tax or fee.
Eastbourne
Eastbourne is a large town in East Sussex, on the south coast of England between Brighton and Hastings. It is in the county of Sussex. It is a place where people go on holiday and also where non-English speakers go to learn English. It is at the eastern end of the chalk hills called the South Downs, and next to the high cliff at Beachy Head. The town was built in the early 19th century for people to visit the seaside. A railway station was built in 1849.
Eastbourne lies next to chalk hills called the South Downs. The famous chalk cliffs Beachy Head is in the town. Eastbourne's architecture and buildings are mainly from the Victorian and Georgian periods. Eastbourne has recently built a marina called Sovereign Harbour which makes the town bigger.
Eastbourne's population was approximately 97,992 in 2009.
Most jobs in Eastbourne are in tourism or tourism-related services.
As of 7 May 2015, the MP for Eastbourne is Caroline Ansell. She is a member of the Conservatives.
Eastbourne Borough Council has 27 members (called councillors). Currently, there are 15 Conservative councillors, 11 Liberal Democrat councillors and one independent councillor. The leader of the council is Councillor Ian Lucas.
There have been people living in the Eastbourne area since 4000BC, but the town did not develop until around 1150AD. St. Mary's Church (now in Eastbourne's Old Town) was first built between 1160 and 1190. Eastbourne was strategically important during the Napoleonic Wars and had a Martello Tower built from 1804 to 1810. The tower is one of few Martello Towers that are still standing, and is now called the Wish Tower.
The town became much bigger after a railway station was built there in 1849. It joined Eastbourne to London, Brighton and the South Coast Railway. From 1858, William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Burlington (later 7th Duke of Cavendish) invested a lot of money into the town. The elegant areas of Meads, Devonshire Park and the Western Parades were developed as a result of his investment. Cavendish's influence is recognised by many place and business names in Eastbourne, for example: the Cavendish School, the Burlington Hotel, or the Devonshire Park Theatre.
Eastbourne Pier was first built in 1865. It is a famous symbol of Eastbourne and today houses amusement arcades, a nightclub and a public house. It also has a rare, working camera obscura.
Sunburn
A sunburn is a kind of burn that happens when skin is exposed to sunlight for too long. The ultraviolet part of sunlight breaks down natural chemicals in the skin. This makes the skin become red. A sunburn can be painful. Sunburns stay for days or weeks.
People with lighter skin have more sunburns than people with darker skin. This is because of a dark pigment called melanin that protects the skin. There is more of it in dark-skinned people than in light-skinned people. Eventually, if exposed to too much sunlight, skin cancer may develop.
Antwerp
Antwerpen is a city in Antwerp province in the north of Belgium. It is at 51° 12 North, 04° 24 East.
It is the capital of the province with the same name.
In 2007, 466,203 people lived there. The city is divided in 9 zones, called districts:
Trieste
Trieste ( , ]; Slovene: "Trst" ]; German: "Triest", ]) is a city in the north-east of Italy in the region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia.
Trieste was a Roman city that in the Middle Ages was under the control of the Republic of Venice. Later was under austrian domination until the first years of the XX century, when Italian irredentism was very strong in Trieste.
The Austrians tried to erase the Italian roots of the population, even promoting the immigration of many Slovenes inside the city, but this created a strong support for the irredentism's ideal of "Union to Italy" from most of the Italian speaking inhabitants of Trieste.
Indeed, together with Trento, Trieste was the main focus of the Italian irredentist movement, which aimed for the annexation to Italy of all the lands they claimed were inhabited by an Italian speaking population. Many local Italians enrolled voluntarily in the Royal Italian Army during WWI (a notable example is the writer Scipio Slataper).
The population of Trieste, practically nearly all Italian, promoted this union of the city to Italy in 1918, and since the end of WWI the city has been the capital of the Italian region called "Venezia Giulia".
The population is 207.069 ab. (2004). It was nearly 300,000 after WWII because many Italian refugees flooded the city as a consequence of the Istrian-Dalmatian exodus.
These days, Trieste is important because of its shipbuilding industry, science parks, universities and "history on the border of western Europe". Trieste will be connected to the Italian "TAV railway" (High Speed) network: a 300 km/hour fast train route is going to connect Trieste with Venice in the next years.
During the Austro-Hungarian Empire, Trieste became a leading European city in economy, trade and commerce, and was the fourth largest and most important center in the Empire, after Vienna, Budapest and Prague. However the economy of Trieste fell into a small decline after the city's annexation to Italy following World War I, because was cut off from the "Mittleurope".
But Fascist Italy promoted a huge development of Trieste in the 1930s, with new manufacturing activities related even to naval and armament industries (like the famous "Cantieri Aeronautici Navali Triestini (CANT)"). Allied bombings during WWII destroyed the industrial section of the city (mainly the shipyards).
As a consequence Trieste was a mainly peripheral city during the Cold War. However, since the 1970s, Trieste has had a huge economic boom, thanks to a significant commercial shipping business to the container terminal, steel works and an oil terminal.
Trieste is also Italy's and Mediterranean's (and one of Europe's) greatest coffee ports, as the city supplies more than 40% of Italy's coffee. Coffee brands, such as Illy, were founded and are headquartered in the city. Currently, Trieste is one of Europe's most important ports and centres for trade and transport, with Trieste being part of the "Corridor 5" plan, to create a bigger transport connection between Western and Eastern European countries.
Offenbach am Main
Offenbach is a city in the German state of Hesse. It is on the river Main near Frankfurt am Main. The city has about 120,000 people. The "Deutscher Wetterdienst" (German weather service) is in Offenbach.