Armored Vehicles Used as Taxis in Russian City of St Petersburg

Rich people will always find better ways to deal with traffic than us regular mortals. They buy huge SUVs so they can drive over railway lines and sometimes even on the sidewalk. Some even go as far as to rent ambulances and take advantage of their sirens to clear traffic.

However, the Russians seem to have found an even better solution. Even if you have a siren there's nothing you can do to cross a congested bridge faster, so why not get across the river another way?

A company from St Petersburg has licensed a few old armored personal carriers to use as taxis. The vehicles have been painted in a dark shade of pink and red so as not to scare the normal civilians.

The vehicles they use are army surplus BRDM, which is short for Boyevaya Razvedyvatelnaya Dozornaya Mashina, or Combat Reconnaissance Patrol Vehicle. The armor and the gun are pretty much useless, but the fact that they can cross waterways is proving valuable, since St Petersburg is criss-crossed by many channels, so much so that it was nicknamed the Venice of the North.

Information is extremely limited at the moment and it seems not even the local media knows what a ride in the red tank taxi costs. However, Gazeta.ru says the company that runs the taxis is called "0:A8 6000000 and has marketed the service as "the safest taxi" because a crash is unlikely to dent the BRDM and nobody is stupid enough to commit road rage in this case. They say the vehicles are allowed to drive in any part of the city except for the historic center.

Armored Vehicles Used as Taxis in Russian city of St Petersburg - photo gallery