Cycle lanes, taxi drivers and the taxi licensing authority

[bigphil]

On my commute to work there is a bus lane, next to a cycle lane. The cycle lane is shared with pedestrians so I usually choose to stay in the bus (and taxi and cycle) lane.

Last week a taxi driver dangerously overtook me and gestured me to get on the cycle lane. I wrote a letter to the council licensing authority asking for them to relay to the taxi driver the reasons why I choose not to use the bad cycle path. I did not want to make a formal complaint.

Today came the reply. It came from a former "very experienced accident investigator". He essentially told me I should not be in the bus lane and he is not interested.

Should I drop the issue?
Anyone have any links on the safety of cycle lanes that I can give to the very experienced man?
Any other suggestions?

Thanks

[Cunobelin]

Yes - complain about the Council's ignorance of their own facilities!

[Mick F]

Was the bus lane expressly forbidden for cyclists?
If not, you have every right to be there.
Write again.

But actually, you will be banging your head against a wall.
Sad, but true.

if you feel strongly enough, write to the papers and your MP.

[Kevin K]

If it really is a bus/cycle/taxi lane (as most are), write again and take issue! As a road user you have every right to be there.

[Cunobelin]

If it really is a bus/cycle/taxi lane (as most are), write again and take issue! As a road user you have every right to be there.

Actually - write to the local press and express your concern that the council is unaware of it's own facilities.

[dan_b]

I hope you'll get some advice of who to contact and what to say to take this further. The subject comes up on uk.rec.cycling from time to time, and IIRC people are often pointed at a particular office of the council and told to ask for sight of the risk assessment/Road Safety Audit that was completed for the cycle lane, or something like that - unfortunately I don't recall the specifics and Google Groups is not being especially helpful right now.

http://groups.google.co.uk/group/uk.rec ... 2482fce67f may give you a starting point

Certainly if you are motivated to take this further I would strongly support it - a council which officially connives at having cyclists bullied off the road is just pathetic. Where is this?

[gaz]

If it really is a bus/cycle/taxi lane (as most are), write again and take issue! As a road user you have every right to be there.

I agree, if there is any doubt about the status of the lane check that first.

Today came the reply. It came from a former "very experienced accident investigator". He essentially told me I should not be in the bus lane and he is not interested.

The devil is always in the detail. Advising you to use the cycle lane rather than the bus lane is not the same as telling you that cycles MUST NOT be in the bus lane. It's a bit like the answers politicians give to questions, they dodge the underlying issue by telling you about their policy.

It would be interesting to know what department of the council the respondent works for. You wrote to the coucil taxi licensing authority is that the department that replied?

So return, Paxman style, to the underlying issue. Escalate the matter to a formal complaint about the original incident, adding that you had hoped the matter could be resolved informally and asking why the licensing authority seem unconcerned about a report of dangerous behaviour by a driver that they have licensed.

Good luck.

[aesmith]

What about citing the general advice that you shouldn't use a cycle path if you're going to ride at over 18mph?

[bigphil]

Thanks for the advice. I've yet to decide on how to follow this up. I have every right to use the bus lane.

To be honest I don't want to cause trouble for the taxi driver - all I requested the taxi licensing people to do was to pass a message on why I decided to use the bus lane. However now I feel I must follow up with the council contact. His response was woefully inadequate:

"I must say that I have used the provided cycle path from the Park & Ride
to and from the City centre for a long time and have never found the
need to cycle in the bus lane. As a former very experienced accident
investigator, I am sure that I would rather take my chances with a
pedestrian than a 74 seater bus.
Our ability to deal with matters like this is very limited and is a
matter for the police if an offence has been committed.
I do not think that there is any way that I can take this matter
further."

The cycle path is rubbish - shared with pedestrians, a bus stop where people linger over the cycle path and there are also about 4 side junctions where the cyclist has to give way. As the stretch is only around 1km long it is much more dangerous for everyone concerned if I use the cycle path.

[bikely-challenged]

"I must say that I have used the provided cycle path from the Park & Ride
to and from the City centre for a long time and have never found the
need to cycle in the bus lane. As a former very experienced accident
investigator, I am sure that I would rather take my chances with a
pedestrian than a 74 seater bus.
Our ability to deal with matters like this is very limited and is a
matter for the police if an offence has been committed.
I do not think that there is any way that I can take this matter
further."

Good grief, that's more like a letter you'd write to your Aunt Fanny than an official council reply. He's saying that he'd rather run into a pedestrian than a bus - that's his personal opinion only and completely irrelevant to your complaint.

[gaz]

I wrote a letter to the council licensing authority asking for them to relay to the taxi driver the reasons why I choose not to use the bad cycle path.

Sounds like the respondent does not want to accept it is a bad cycle path.

Perhaps he feels that passing your letter on will amount to an admission by the council that it is a bad cycle path.

Could you re-word your original letter to simply remind the taxi driver that you have a choice of using a cycle path or the bus lane, just as he can choose to use the bus lane or the main carriageway.

Your reasons for the choice aren't relevant. It could be the best cycle path known to man next to the worst bus lane, you've still got every right to choose the bus lane.

[Cunobelin]

The trick in my experience is to change the emphasis.

We had illegal parking and basically the licensing office didn't care a fig.

So we started a new tack - that the vehicle was being in an unsafe manner and therefore in breach of the license.

As a result each offence is now dealt with.

[Pete Owens]

I wrote a letter to the council licensing authority asking for them to relay to the taxi driver the reasons why I choose not to use the bad cycle path.

and I think this one reason why you had such an inadequate response.

The letter you have written is essentially about your behaviour rather than the taxi driver's - thus the reply addresses your riding rather than his driving. What he did was totaly unnacceptable and would not be justified even if the bus lane prohibited cycles.

I would suggest a 2 pronged attack:

1. Report the incident to the police as he suggested, but focus on his deliberate aggressive driving. It is unlikely to result in a prosecution, but if you are lucky they might be persuaded to have a quiet word with him.

2. Write to your local councilor and ask them to take action on why the taxi licencing authority takes no interest in the driving standards of taxi drivers.