Of Taxis and Taxes

Your Travel Advisory column (March 2) cautioned about taxi use in Russia, recommending only yellow, metered taxis. On our 1996 train trip from Helsinki, Finland, to St. Petersburg, Russia, a Russian woman also warned us of robberies and murders occurring in unmarked taxis.

There wasn’t a marked taxi of any color at the St. Petersburg train station. My husband finally forced me into a car he flagged down that had faint scratchings on the side and a meter inside. We had a safe ride and learned that honest drivers seldom attach “taxi” signs to the roof because of additional taxes. Thereafter, we would only use the mostly unmarked taxis lined up in front of the best hotels.

ANN LEVESQUE

Irvine