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How do you put someone on ignore? Been on the forum since 2007 and none of the bellends who have come and gone (or in fact stayed) have been bad enough for me to need the ignore function- Jeez on the other hand is unbelievably tiresome and I need him out of my online life.

go to their profile and click on user lists under their name then add to ignore list.

Cheers

This.

We have choice. Public transport. Black cabs. Our own cars. Bikes. Minicabs. Black cabs are a great option because they enable people who wish to pay a premium price to get a minicab-plus service. And you have to pre-book through an office for your own protection if you do not use the premium service.

Cabbies cannot stop progress and technology. But they can and should do everything that they can to fight for their position as the best trained highest priced option. Not least because the legality of the 'competition' is questionable at best.

What some thick people do not seem to realise is that fewer laws can lead to reduced choice as the premium product is competed out of existence. This benefits no-one. Not the people who wish to buy the premium product. Not the producers of the premium product. Not the public who do not use the premium product.

None of this alters my opinion that cab drivers (mini and black) are generally scum.

For the thick people: Explain the premium product that black cabs offer and the process in which this product may become obsolete.

Compare that with the lower priced more transparent option where you get a copy of the route taken with the ability to challenge if the driver has gone the long way to bump the fare.

Of those three I would say number 1 is the only proper reason. If we all switch to minicabs because we are able to then the wheelchair and bike friendly vehicles might die out.

As for avoiding congestion, there are apps for that. As for training and keeping on the straight and narrow, cobblers.

(1) They're a shit design and take up far too much room on the road.
(2) Knowledge of congestion doesn't help when it's everywhere (London).
(3) Doesn't work if there's no effective mechanism to control them. Clearly evidenced by the terrible driving and general cunty attitude of black cab drivers.

Disabled people who have limited mobility can't afford to take fucking taxis in the first place

Your argument ("fewer laws can lead to reduced choice as the premium product is competed out of existence") is that Uber will result in fewer accessible cars, drivers who will take longer to get you to your destination, and drivers who have no incentive to stay on the straight-and-narrow?

The first two are pretty spurious, I think. Accessible cars will always remain, and I suspect - and this is from some experience - that those who need them usually call for cars rather than hailing a black cab. In regard to "teh noledge" - I believe that black cab drivers do know more after their training. What is the argument here, though? Is it that this translate into significantly quicker trips? Black cabs have more incentive to be slow than minicabs/uber as they charge by distance/time. Minicab drivers have an incentive to be quick as they charge by journey. Do you have evidence that the group which doesn't have the incentive to be quick is generally quicker than the group that doesn't?

That last is the weird one. So we need government incentives to keep a particular class/group of people on the straight-and-narrow through artificially high-wages, or else they'll...?

Is it possible that other regulations may be capable of preventing this group from becoming whatever it is you are insinuating they will become?

I believe in the necessity (and often positive benefits) of government regulations. I believe drivers of any type of hire car need to be licensed in a way that ensures they are going to be safe drivers. I don't believe we need black cabs to do this.

I hope you're happy now, Horatio.

Fuuuuck.

aren't you sposed to be on holiday?

Disabled people who have limited mobility can't afford to take fucking taxis in the first place

Are you saying all disabled people are poor? because that's far from the truth.

aren't you sposed to be on holiday?

I missed Jeez.

I believe drivers of any type of hire car need to be licensed in a way that ensures they are going to be safe drivers. I don't believe we need black cabs to do this.

That is, however, what Uber, Side-car and their ilk get around. Calling themselves "car sharing" puts their drivers in the same rulebook as any motorist. If anyone with a license can qualify to "car share" it means that not only does one have a larger pool of "qualified drivers" to tap but it also provides an easy "opt in" for those whose need for money outstrips their concern for safety--- effectively lowering standards for "taxi drivers" to "has a valid drivers license" and maybe "no DUI conviction over the last year". The only government planning instrument available would be to increase liability requirements for all car sharing--- ultimately creating negative incentives for car pooling. Since the cost of entering a market is relatively low these "app driven" solutions have lower transaction and fixed costs and can "pick up and leave" should profits fail to meet their expectations leaving shards and a vacuum behind them...

That is, however, what Uber, Side-car and their ilk get around. Calling themselves "car sharing" puts their drivers in the same rulebook as any motorist. If anyone with a license can qualify to "car share" it means that not only does one have a larger pool of "qualified drivers" to tap but it also provides an easy "opt in" for those whose need for money outstrips their concern for safety--- effectively lowering standards for "taxi drivers" to "has a valid drivers license" and maybe "no DUI conviction over the last year". The only government planning instrument available would be to increase liability requirements for all car sharing--- ultimately creating negative incentives for car pooling. Since the cost of entering a market is relatively low these "app driven" solutions have lower transaction and fixed costs and can "pick up and leave" should profits fail to meet their expectations leaving shards and a vacuum behind them...

Why is it impossible to have new regulations which apply to Uber (and its ilk)? That is, I don't see what makes it particularly difficult to differentiate between a car pool and a hire car. If they can be outlawed without outlawing car pooling, why can they not be regulated without outlawing car pooling?

Uber is not going to increase choice

Err.. it exists.. it did just increase choice.

Mrak, are you doing this for a bet?

Actually to be an uber x driver you need to be "A professional driver with a private-hire license and commercial insurance"

Are you saying all disabled people are poor? because that's far from the truth.

I'm rich (and disabled, thankyouverymuch) and I can't afford to take fucking taxis either

Hang on, is Jeeez a black cab driver?

he's too opinionated to be a cabbie.

His conversational style is bang on, however?

Disabled people who have limited mobility can't afford to take fucking taxis in the first place

It might look like a specially designed red minibus type thing but it's actually a black cab honest...

www.tfl.gov.uk/modes/dial-a-ride/

Oh also has anyone ever attempted to flag down a cab while in a wheelchair? good luck getting them to stop for you

Edit - didn't see the next reply mentioning you have some disability

I'd rep you for the plumber bit but the stunned silence bit lets it down. Wanted proper rant ending in fisticuffs and a night in jail for you both.

I'm mellowing with age... And I was in a really good mood... For a change...

Oh also has anyone ever attempted to flag down a cab while in a wheelchair? good luck getting them to stop for you

Yers. That's if you even bother trying in the first place. Where the fuck are you going to flag them down? Stand outside the building you were in and hope one goes past? Try to wave one down from knee-height by the side of a main road with people twice your height surrounding you? Not bloody likely. It's a bit like buses - they're all kitted out to be wheelchair-friendly but you hardly ever see anyone getting on them with a wheelchair, and it's not because there's hardly anybody in the city who needs a wheelchair, it's because they're still a massive ballache to use even with their fuzzy little headboards and their kneeling step.

I was being slightly facetious in my response to Apollo though, but that's because his question was facetious. Of course I wasn't saying all disabled people are poor, that would be absurd. They are, however, twice as likely to be living in poverty than people without a disability, so they're even less likely to be able to get cabs everywhere than "normal" people are, and "normal" people are priced out of the things themselves. Of course there are people with disabilities who aren't poor, I'm one. But it's not so very long ago that I was one of those disability-linked poverty statistics myself, and it's purely through the whims of chance that's no longer the case.

Disable people get certain perks (Freedom Pass, less than half price in museum/gallery/etc.) does not mean they're well off.