Travel website Hotels.com conducts an annual survey of tourist attitudes to taxis and invites respondents to assess performance in various categories, including friendliness, cost, driving expertise and local knowledge.

This year’s survey involved people living in 15 countries and a full 16 percent plumped for London cabbies as the best of the bunch, with New York and Tokyo coming in second and third respectively.

Stockholm, which claimed 6th place last year, fell to mid-table in 2010 coming in 23rd place. The sample is randomly selected and so the reason could simply be that a higher proportion simply had not visited the city.

“Respondents are asked for the best and the worst in a range of categories, so they presumably vote for the cities which they have visited,” said a Hotels.com spokesperson to The Local on Wednesday.

Stockholm drivers can gain some solace from this year’s survey however as the city’s taxis came in top in the “safe driving” category.

London’s black cabs scored top rankings in all other categories although they were also considered to be the most expensive.

Rome had the distinction of coming in last of the 53 cities in 15 countries featured with regards to driving expertise, while Paris and New York taxi-drivers were considered to be the least friendly.