( CNN ) -- Who has n't left a strange airport wondering not just whether you should be in this taxi but whether it even is one -- only to be charmed , amused or unexpectedly edified by the person behind the wheel . Or , it 's true , bored to death , humiliated or even ripped off . Now an online booking service called Airporttransfers has released a survey of 2,162 recent British vacationers , asking them to name the meanest , nastiest , take-the-longest-route-and-still-expect-a-tip taxi drivers on the planet . Travel shocker ! British tourists consider French cabbies rude . And get outta ze cab ! It 's the French . But -- and here we perform some fabulously expressive gesticulation whose meaning is `` leave my hired vehicle immediately '' -- it 's also the Italians . That 's right : the two European nations have drawn up level at the traffic lights and been judged equally rude . But for every offensive action , there 's an equal and opposite reaction -- which brings us to Greece . Some of its taxi drivers , those on the island of Rhodes , were judged among the friendliest on the planet . The news comes on the heels of findings that people on another Greek isle , Ikaria , are among those with the longest life expectancy on Earth . Diet has a lot to do with it , but so , too , does a famously laid-back attitude -- something that might have infected the Rhodes cabbies . But what about those British vacationers ? Could it be that their collective offense-taking at the cab driving Jean-Pierres and Patrizias of this world comes from the famous reluctance of the French and Italians to speak English just because the British do ? Rides worldwide . To broaden the field a bit , what do non-Brits think of cab drivers worldwide ? Asking around our well traveled staff produced some passionate responses . Tokyo cabbies wear suits , white gloves and put doilies and plastic covers on all upholstery . Nice . But they 're easily inflamed . `` Do n't touch the door ! '' warns one editor . `` That 's for the driver to operate in your first moment of ultra-impressive service . '' `` Hong Kong taxi drivers can be mean and whiny if you 're not going far or stuck in a lucrative traffic jam , '' says associate producer ( and local ) Maggie Wong . `` And , as second-jobbing small businessmen , they all have multiple mobile phones on the dash , so forget about small talk . '' World 's best taxis . Top storytellers . Next to London 's beetle-shaped black cruisers , New York yellow cabs must be the most recognizable in the world . You 'd expect New York cabbies to be sassy -- but rude ? `` Are you rude to them ? '' parries Payal Dixit , an Upper West Side NYC resident in her early thirties . `` I 've found that New York cab drivers are some of the best storytellers -- a simple 'hello ' can get them going . `` Some do n't want to be bothered , but most enjoy sharing their adventures , whether it be about celebrity passengers or their lives in a foreign country you dream of visiting . '' View from the front . Dixit raises a good point . What 's the view from the front seat ? `` You know , 99 % of people are as nice as pie , '' says Steve McNamara , general secretary of the British Licensed Taxi Drivers ' Association , himself behind the wheel of a London cab for 30 years . ( Another , global survey , it should be said , has consistently rated London 's legendary black taxis the best in the world . ) `` Cab driving restores your faith in humanity . It can be trying when people say , ' I 'm staying at the hotel with the green door . ' Do n't you know there are 8,000 hotels in London ? `` And you get obnoxious people who 've been drinking -- but that 's not as common as you might think . `` The 1 % -- the loonies -- can be right wing , left wing , Christian or Muslim . Drivers always say , put 'em all together in an island in the Atlantic ! '' Pull up here . We 're getting out here . In the comments section , share your stories of being charmed , amused or unexpectedly edified by the person by the wheel . Or bored to death , humiliated or even ripped off .
Study names French Quarter 's rudest taxi drivers . All study survey subjects were British . New York people are great storytellers . A London black # ##bie tells all .