Taxis are sometimes treated as elements of ‘public transport’ and high occupancy vehicles (HOV) that are not part of a bus service fleet are allowed to use some priority lanes that exclude general road traffic. This is broadly inline with the theory that use of these vehicles is preferable to ordinary private motor vehicles and especially those with a single occupant. As is increasingly the case in developed nations, UK taxi drivers and their vehicles are licensed to ply for trade on public highways in exchange for meeting higher than basic standards of competence and road worthiness. See the National Taxi Association for more. The A subset of these services in UK towns is provided by mini-cabs whose drivers are now regulated in the UK but not required to have as much of The Knowledge required for full taxi status in London and other major cities. Encouraging use of HOVs is seen as one way to cut the number of vehicles on congested urban and inter-urban highways
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