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• #76
Wrongcog
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Loving the David Brent style adjustment!
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Because black cabs are a commercial operation being given unfair advantage over their competitors.
As a reminder black cabs are, for the most part, independent drivers running as sole proprietors and not part of a single corporate entity, unlike AL. Those individuals who pay a hefty financial price for those privileges along with an investment in training in the knowledge. (FWIW - a black cab costs about as much as a really nice BMW 3 series.)
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The knowledge is a pointless rite of passage.
It doesn't make black cabs better, it doesn't make the drivers better, it doesn't make journeys faster or more comfortable.
It does add a layer of money-making bureaucracy, and allows the PCO to maintain their anti-competitive monopoly and monopsony, and it also gives cabbies a massive fucking sense of entitlement and self-righteousness.
Go do the knowledge, come back in two to five years and then let us know if you have the same opinion.
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That it's anachronistic and archaic? That it doesn't make you a better driver?
I'm not sure why or how learning how to memorise thousands of place names and road names, and routes and shortcuts, is going to do anything other that give me a particularly biased opinion, influenced by the fact that I have to justify to myself at least why I've just spent two to five years learning how to become a sat nav.
It puts future black cab drivers on mopeds or bicycles for 2 to 5 years while they are doing it. Must be a good thing for them to be on the same footing as us for a while.
It also stops them needing to take their eyes of the road to look at a satnav.
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For what it's worth, not enough people complain about Addison Lee driving.
If you see an Addison Lee cab going into a bus lane report it here:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/pco/private-hire.aspxIf the driving of an Addison Lee vehicle is dangerous, also report it.
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It puts future black cab drivers on mopeds or bicycles for 2 to 5 years while they are doing it. Must be a good thing for them to be on the same footing as us for a while.
It also stops them needing to take their eyes of the road to look at a satnav.
Then completely forget what its like and on the look out for fares and not the road.
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Really? You really think the majority of black cab drivers don't pay attention to us?
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For what it's worth, not enough people complain about Addison Lee driving.
If you see an Addison Lee cab going into a bus lane report it here:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/pco/private-hire.aspxIf the driving of an Addison Lee vehicle is dangerous, also report it.
Which is going to be about as effective as that roadsafe reporting thing, i.e. you may as well bellow your complaint into the fridge at work for all the good it does?
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i really do feel sorry for you london cyclists, you seem to get a really shitty deal with the numpty motons and now more taxis want to kill you even more than before!
Steady now, don't just go by all the venting that people do on here. Cycling in London is pretty good, and the threat from crashes is over-reported. Of course there are problems, but it's not 'a really shitty deal'--if it was, we wouldn't have so many people riding bikes, and cycling growing.
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Which is going to be about as effective as that roadsafe reporting thing, i.e. you may as well bellow your complaint into the fridge at work for all the good it does?
Actually it is effective. Complaining to Addison Lee isn't, but complaining to TfL is.
Did you know that PHV companies no longer have to do extra training at all because the view was that the level of complaints was low enough that they were unsure of the value of additional training.
Most road users regard PHV and Addison Lee amongst the worst drivers out there, and that they are incentivised to drive recklessly fast to make a poor living, rather than being incentivised to drive safely with regard to other road users.
Changing the statistics on PHV complaints for dangerous driving will alter that, and force additional training, and in the case of reporting a criminal offence will trigger action against the PHV operator.
If you're not getting all of the incidents logged then to the paper trail nerds in TfL, the PHV office and the Mayor's office... are the incidents happening and are they an issue? All stats would say no.
So log everything, every minor indiscretion, and have the public record scream that it's an issue.
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Steady now, don't just go by all the venting that people do on here. Cycling in London is pretty good, and the threat from crashes is over-reported. Of course there are problems, but it's not 'a really shitty deal'--if it was, we wouldn't have so many people riding bikes, and cycling growing.
fair enough, but the stats are not good either tho, isn't cycling growing out of necessity?
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For what it's worth, not enough people complain about Addison Lee driving.
If you see an Addison Lee cab going into a bus lane report it here:
https://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/contact/pco/private-hire.aspxIf the driving of an Addison Lee vehicle is dangerous, also report it.
For what its worth......
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I kind of support this thing. Not because minicabs should be in bus lanes, but because black cabs shouldn't be.
It seems like the likely scenario is that Addisson Lee will win in court, which means that anyone could register as a private hire car and get a sticker that allows them to drive in the bus lanes. So the only reasonable response is to kick black cabs out of them. Which evens the black cab/minicab playing field somewhat.
One of the main reasons why black cabs are allowed in bus lanes is because they can be hailed in the street and can pick up passengers. While much of Central London doesn't have bus lanes, it would be unworkable with their current license to 'kick them out' of bus lanes. If Addison Lee won in court (which I doubt, as their argument is just silly, but IANAL--perhaps you have a better grasp of the legal niceties than I have), the outcome would most definitely not be that black cabs would be 'kicked out' of bus lanes. At best, access to bus lanes might be restricted to picking up and setting down, which would be relatively difficult, if not impossible, to enforce.
With a tinfoil hat on, it's not impossible that Boris wants taxis out of the bus lanes so that he can report that buses are now x% faster. This is a neat excuse to do that without incurring the wrath of the cabbies.
Conservative Party policy direction has generally been against bus lanes, although they obviously realise that they can't just attack bus priority in London, as that would not work politically. The Mayor affirmed as much in 'Way to Go' (the one with the fixie riders on the cover), which is interesting because of the rather strange way in which he sums up his assessment of the policy: 'The question now is not how to demolish that policy, but how to develop and improve it.' Who even asked the question about demolishing it?
Anyway, a much more likely scenario would be a general reduction in bus lanes, using such a court verdict as a crutch. However, that's not on the cards, either.
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Actually it is effective. Complaining to Addison Lee isn't, but complaining to TfL is.
Did you know that PHV companies no longer have to do extra training at all because the view was that the level of complaints was low enough that they were unsure of the value of additional training.
Most road users regard PHV and Addison Lee amongst the worst drivers out there, and that they are incentivised to drive recklessly fast to make a poor living, rather than being incentivised to drive safely with regard to other road users.
Changing the statistics on PHV complaints for dangerous driving will alter that, and force additional training, and in the case of reporting a criminal offence will trigger action against the PHV operator.
If you're not getting all of the incidents logged then to the paper trail nerds in TfL, the PHV office and the Mayor's office... are the incidents happening and are they an issue? All stats would say no.
So log everything, every minor indiscretion, and have the public record scream that it's an issue.
Isn't it your word against an equal? Always thought you could only complain as a passenger, or was that just black cabs.
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This is a story that will keep on giving.
Addy Lee object to the M4 bus lane.
give £250,000 to the Tories
Get a meeting with Transport secretary
M4 bus lane is abolished
Addy Lee object to all bus lanes.What on earth will happen next?
Perhaps Addy Lee will object to compulsory insurance for their drivers and the inequitable driving tests that they must go through.
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Just as many as the other cab / minicab tosspots on the road.
Pulling in to collect a fare, just after the cab has overtaken you. Unsignalled U turns. When I am cycling in a bus lane having a taxi really closely to the back wheel of the bike and rev engine or sounding horn to intimidate. Undertaking traffic and not noticing what is in a bus lane if its not big and red.
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Isn't it your word against an equal? Always thought you could only complain as a passenger, or was that just black cabs.
It's not equal, there are TfL CCTV everywhere. "Your word against his" applies when there are no other records of something, but CCTV covers pretty much all of London's main roads and therefore it's "Your word + CCTV record, against his".
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Pulling in to collect a fare, just after the cab has overtaken you. Unsignalled U turns. When I am cycling in a bus lane having a taxi really closely to the back wheel of the bike and rev engine or sounding horn to intimidate. Undertaking traffic and not noticing what is in a bus lane if its not big and red.
I only see these things happen a few times a month during the 500+mi that I ride each month.
It must be something to do with where you ride I guess.
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Addison Lee drivers told to defy bus lane law (and to just say SMIDSY)
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