Addison Lee drivers told to defy bus lane law (and to just say SMIDSY)

rep for the nameless successor.

Wasn't me.

He's very healthy looking; and attractive. I think we should support him on this one.

Excellent likeness.

WAC.

^^That is unfair Curly Watts is infinitely more attractive and would not be seen dead in a bri-nylon double breasted suit.

Also he is not a cunt.

Not much...

Peanut eaters.

Penus eaters.

Charming. Not all the AddLee drivers are cock-munchers.

Just most of them.

Annoyingly the News at Ten report earlier tonight did not mention the effect on cyclists who use the bus lanes. Are we totally invisible now?

Adopting the use of primary a little more often. Yep, I'd do that.

Taxiderny

They can get stuffed. Geddit? Never mind

No idea if it's a publicity stunt or not, but it's a total nonsense. It's a long-standing campaign by minicabs to be allowed in bus lanes, although they haven't gone this far before.

Highway authorities have powers to designate bus lanes. This is done by means of Traffic Regulation Orders. You can have one for each bit of street, or include several streets in one, etc. As you can imagine, there are rather a lot of Traffic Orders around. Unless a mistake has been made in process or wording which renders the Order invalid, you can only change it through due process. It is perfectly lawful to make exemptions in bus lane TROs for black cabs. That pedal cyclists can use (most) bus lanes is likewise a exemption.

Just looked up some of the legal background again; I don't know if Addison Lee are challenging primary legislation (Road Traffic Regulation Act 1984, Road Traffic Act 1991 for making TROs, Traffic Management Act 2004 for civil enforcement) or the statutory instruments (TSRGD, TROs), but this is all very well established and I'm at a loss to work out what they expect to gain from it. Could be a publicity stunt or someone spoiling for a knockout in a fight.

I had to get an AddLee to the hospital yesterday morning. I wondered why the driver was going in the bus lane down the OKR.I can confirm that they are indeed doing it.

Primary d-lock action defence response: "He attacked me in the bus lane officer"

I had to get an AddLee to the hospital yesterday morning. I wondered why the driver was going in the bus lane down the OKR.I can confirm that they are indeed doing it.

Report him

I had to get an AddLee to the hospital yesterday morning. I wondered why the driver was going in the bus lane down the OKR.I can confirm that they are indeed doing it.

Was it inside the lane's operating hours or outside?

I have a feeling that this might backfire for Mr Griffin.

I think he has a crush on Michael O'Leary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O'Leary_(businessman)#Controversy_and_reputation

its like they want to be a proper taxi firm, but don't want to be a proper taxi firm.
Minicab's are minicab's for a reason.

I remember beardy branson paying for a whole train of us to get cab's to anywhere in London after their train was about 3hours+ late, unfortunatly they were everyones favourite minicabs. The guy had to use satnav to navigate from euston to highgate #fail. then after dropping us off he ignored my directions, tried to turn around and got stuck in the ice between two sports cars. 20mins later he was still there sliding around. I just went to bed, and left him out there.

Friends in high places ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2012/apr/16/minicab-tory-donor

I have a feeling that this might backfire for Mr Griffin.

I think he has a crush on Michael O'Leary http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_O'Leary_(businessman)#Controversy_and_reputation

You mean the O'Leary who lost all his money after his airline folded due to the bad publicity? Oh...
I think he will be delighted if it backfires that successfully.

The key difference between Addison Lee and Ryanair is as follows.

Ryanair corner the low cost airline market to a point that the majority of their customers despise them yet don't have many choices but to fly with them. To be fair to Ryanair, customer satisfaction has improved a lot recently with more flights leaving on time.

Addison Lee is just another minicab company. People have a choice not to use them. There are other similarly priced and cheaper firms out there.

Friends in high places ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2012/apr/16/minicab-tory-donor

You mean all we had to do was raise 250k to sort out blackfriars, bow roundabout etc?

Friends in high places ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/global/2012/apr/16/minicab-tory-donor

Addison Lee used a similar tactic over the M4 bus lane, resulting in more than 200 tickets and 130 court summons against its drivers. These were dropped when the lane was ordered to be closed by Hammond in October 2010.

Be aware, very aware.

How come black cabs are allowed to use bus lanes and AddLee/private cars aren't? I can understand why all taxis wouldn't be allowed to drive in the lane (otherwise it would be pretty easy to slap a taxi sticker on your car and drive willy nilly) but why give an exemption to (often equally shit/aggressive) black cabs?

John Griffin, the Chairman of Addison Lee, has apparently instructed his 4,000 drivers to defy the law and use bus lanes:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/16/london-cab-firm-drivers-bus-lanes

Needs moar tie