Licensed taxi cabs have yellow-and-black numberplates and are no more expensive than the (less reliable) unlicensed ones, which have white-and-black plates. Fares in Bangkok's metered, air-conditioned taxis start at B35, but it can be hard to get the driver to use the meter. If that's the case, establish a fare first. The noisy, three-wheeled, open-sided buggies known as tuk-tuks are the standard way of making shortish journeys and are cheaper and nippier, if less comfortable than taxi cabs; there have been cases of attacks on solo women in tuk-tuks late at night. Cheaper and faster still are motorbike taxis , which can only carry one passenger and generally do shortish local journeys. The riders wear numbered, coloured vests; crash helmets are now compulsory on all main thoroughfares in the capital.