It would be nice to be able to find a "sane" taxi-driver in Spain. Many (most) of them drive like crazy and they are all listening to very loud football on the radio.
I've used Madrid taxis dozens, maybe more than a hundred times. What I have to say: driving is not crazier than any other non-taxi Madrid driver, including me when I had a car.
Anything annoying they stop it as soon as requested. My experience is I have to expressly allow them to turn radio on.
What I don't like: about at least a 15% of rides, the driver tries to take the (very) long way. A couple of times I've demanded them to 'stop me right here'. That's sad for the majority of good drivers out there, but still a problem and forces me to be extra careful, while I'd rather relax and enjoy the landscape.
I believe that's part of their value proposition. I enjoy pulling out from them how far right-winged they are by throwing out franquist bullshit all the time. They make my day.
I've used MyTaxi or Hailo many times in the past few months here in Madrid and have had 0 issues with taxi drivers. I'm not saying there are no taxi drivers like the ones you described above, but I think it's a minority.
I've booked a single taxi journey in Spain, and it was one of the most frightening experiences in my life. The guy was chasing pedestrians and would have run over several of them had they not jumped. He got us to where we were going quickly though.
I don't use taxis very often but I've never found a stereotypical taxi driver in the 10-20 times I've used them (I live in Madrid). They were all polite, their cars were clean and had no music/radio or it was set to a low volume.
Anything annoying they stop it as soon as requested. My experience is I have to expressly allow them to turn radio on.
What I don't like: about at least a 15% of rides, the driver tries to take the (very) long way. A couple of times I've demanded them to 'stop me right here'. That's sad for the majority of good drivers out there, but still a problem and forces me to be extra careful, while I'd rather relax and enjoy the landscape.