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

I'm a bit gutted I can't go as so many are heading down.

His response
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/john-griffin/cycling-a-deadly-serious-issue_b_1440489.html?show_comment_id=149290479#comment_149290479

Do you have details on this? What happened?

It turned up on my credit report, I'm trying to buy a house but struggling due to impurities in my credit history.

Quite frankly, I can't think of a more stupid way of 'protesting' 'for' cycling than a 'die-in'.

It's a great way of looking like a marginal group of amateurs. The best protest is to hit them where it hurts, financially. Something like a professionally administered campaign to reduce Addison Lee's number of corporate accounts (their main source of income i imagine). To be honest, he's doing this himself at the moment, and with the Times on his back, I'm imagining that they've lost some accounts this week already.

I think we should go as wobbling grannies and do some tricks.

Or eggs.

Not this. The shells cut into the paint and could leave you with a bill for a respray/ touchup, never mind the potential for criminal damage.

Die-in.

What a fucking cretinous idea, jesus christ.

Maybe, just maybe, 3500 of us should all book cabs all at the same time, repetatively. Beachy Head seems like a good spot!

Maybe, just maybe, 3500 of us should all book cabs all at the same time, repetatively. Beachy Head seems like a good spot!

^ this. The app makes it so easily possible and considering no-one will be concerned with being blacklisted, it seems rude not to.

^ this. The app makes it so easily possible and considering no-one will be concerned with being blacklisted, it seems rude not to.

Anyone game, might be rather entertaining!

I would go along with a boycott of his company until he changes his advice to his drivers about bus lanes.
His article about cyclists, though, and his 'clarification' are a different matter. Very unusually for someone with such ill-thought out and ill-informed views he says that in London cycle lanes are not the answer, training is. The answer to the problem as he sees it, that is.
I think he is wrong about the problem but there is an opening there to have a discussion with him. He is ignorant of reality:
A few years ago, almost every school child did a cycling proficiency test, which involved negotiating their way around bollards and learning the Highway Code. What has happened to that, and why is it not on the agenda any more?
I would be more than happy to have him come along and watch a training session in a school.
He has never heard of Bikeability. Almost certainly he does not know that cycle training is available for free or very cheaply for all adults in London. We may not like his views, or his tone, or his company or his tie but there is an opportunity here to change his perspective and, who knows, get him on our side
It depends what we want to achieve.

He's just ended up expressing his view that cyclists shouldn't be on the road as apparent concern that cyclists should have better training. His perspective is that cycling is dicing with death, and cyclists should learn to deal with that.

The controversy around his comments on cycling are incidental to his aims, and to be honest not many people give a shit, so it depends on how much he feels he needs to placate cyclists by engaging with them. I suspect not a lot.

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shameless plug over

good job I kept this

going to have put it back on the bike at this rate..

Ian Collins on LBC is giving him publicity on LBC right now.. says most Londoners agree with him.

I'm listening and learning. 9/10 cyclists jump red lights. interesting

Facts like that belong only in the football thread.

All the phone ins agree, the odd one saying they've got a bike before laying into cyclists as a whole. It's one big self congratulatory pat on the back exercise.

Actually amazed how much bullshit the presenter is spouting.

Given this age of so called elf and safety...

Let's suppose one is in an Adison Lee Vehicle, on a company account.

Said AL vehicle gets stopped, with you in as a passenger, when said AL vehicle is illegally driving in a bus lane.

Would one be able to claim, to your employer that you must be driven legally?

Therefore on those grounds, request they change company account ?

This is all very well, provided people who walk in the public road (ie pedestrians) have similarly appropriate licensing, training and insurance applied to their activities.

I wonder what percentage of adult cyclists don't actually have a driving license...

Of course everyone who is insured driving a vehicle drives very safely by definition.

This is all very well, provided people who walk in the public road (ie pedestrians) have similarly appropriate licensing, training and insurance applied to their activities.

I suppose the argument is that they're [generally] not trying to mix it up with motorised traffic...

Quite a few cyclist have insurance. So he can stick that in his pipe and smoke it.