Taxis line up on The Mall, the London thoroughfare leading to Buckingham Palace, during a protest by drivers against the smartphone app Uber.
Uber, which lets you hire and pay for a car from your phone or tablet, has faced opposition for its service in virtually every city it has chosen to operate in, with local taxi drivers seeing it as a threat to their business. Up until now, you could hire a private hire vehicle like a minicab or limo through Uber, but Wednesday in London it has added the option of hiring a taxi with a new UberTAXI service.
The offending app: smartphone app Uber enables users to hail private hire cars from any location. The controversial piece of software, which is opposed by established taxi drivers, currently serves more than 100 cities in 37 countries.
A show of solidarity from the The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT), best known to Londoners for a recent string of tube strikes.
Within less than half an hour after the demonstration's appointed start time -- or more accurately, stop time -- slow-moving traffic had turned into stationary traffic.
Many cabbies also expressed dissatisfaction with another e-hailing app Hailo, which three weeks ago angered black cab drivers by adding private hire vehicles to its service.
The London demonstration coincided with protests across Europe, such as here near Paris, France. French drivers slowed down to protest against the growing number of minicabs, known in France as Voitures de Tourisme avec Chauffeurs (VTC).
Caption byRichard Trenholm
/ Photo by FRED DUFOUR/AFP/Getty Images
Not everyone agrees with the cabbies: here, supporters of online ride-sharing apps hold up signs demanding an end to the taxi monopoly at a demonstration near Berlin's Olympia Stadium.
While a large majority of the protest took place in Europe, there were also demonstrations around the world.
In Rio De Janeiro, Brazil, a day before the World Cup was set to begin, Taxi drivers and their
supporters staged a small rally and partial road blockage as drivers
protest Uber.
Transport for London is referring Uber to Britain's High Court in an attempt to secure legal backing for its decision to allow Uber to operate. But with Uber and other e-hailing apps causing a storm of controversy in many cities around the world, it seems this story still has a long way to go.