Thanks to writer and artist and former taxi driver Dmitry Samarov for letting me know about the “Virtual Museum of Taxi Meters”. I’ve written about digital museums before, from the Vibrator Museum in Michigan to the Big Internet Museum, not available in the real world of course because it’s about the freakin’ internet. Most of these so-called museum are really just photo galleries, which is also true of the Taxi Meter Museum.
Yes, kids…before Uber took over the world, there was such a thing as the taxi cab. I mean, they’re still around, right? But for how much longer? Maybe it’s a good thing someone out there is trying to preserve taxi history. Based in Argentina, the site’s owner, Richard Gallo, posts lots of photographs of vintage taximeters from South America and all over the world. Not only does he collect digital pics of taximeters, but he also collects the “real” thing. He has over 100 meters in his personal collection. Maybe one day his “Virtual Museum of Taxi Meters” will drop the “virtual” from its name and find a permanent space to show off the collection to the public, you know, in the real world.
