Cycling UK Forum

Police coudn't do anything as "parking is decriminalised" and the responsibility of the parking office, the Council couldn't do anything as it is not "parking", an obstruction and therefore the Police need to deal (see 1) and the licensing office refused to deal as it was in retrospect and therefore they could not issue points on the licence.

Portsmouth does not have a good reputation for dealing with taxi offences.

The cycle lane is not a mandatory one. Yellow line parking is decriminalised - normally enforced by the local authority's civil enforcement officers. Unnecessary obstruction is a non-starter there IMO but parking within the zig-zags is definitely a police matter and IMO a serious one - serious enough to be endorsable. OTOH, I simply do not know whether the zig-zags apply to the area outside them when they are not next to the kerb. (Yellow lines certainly cover the entire width of the highway including the footway.) Around here, the highway authority has deliberately designated parking spaces close to some pedestrian crossings, even though vehicles parked there obscure pedestrains waiting to cross, and the zig-zags are painted next to the parking places, much as they are with that cycle lane.

I shouted "nice parking" to a driving instructor who was parked obstructing a cycle lane. While there may not be laws about it I'm sure it would come under "care and consideration for other road users" on the driving test.

Why are cab users bothered about going slowly to their destination? they charge by the time taken. Of course they're just annoyed they can't get back to the rank quickly.

What next, people-in-a-hurry should be allow to use bus lanes? Motorway hard shoulders are already becoming an impromtu escape route for traffic jammed drivers in search of the next exit, so I suppose cars in bus lanes are inevitable.

Taxi's should come right down the hierarchy of transport priority in the city environment, just above the privately owned car. They are not the same as public transport for a number of reasons, unless they are of a hybrid, bookable mini-bus service running on demand, for a lower fare, as you get in rural areas sometimes. They are not really an alternative for the motor car, rather they repeat a lot of the cars worst aspects. So they shouldn't be receiving preferential treatment by councils. It's the thin end of the wedge when it comes to bus lanes.

IMO, taxi drivers rank (sorry) amongst some of the worse drivers out there - not wanting to tar all taxi drivers with the same brush I'll just stick with tarring about 50%, the rest are about average with just a couple of exceptions...

I'm surprised taxi drivers aren't allowed in bus lanes anyway - certainly near home and on my commute all the bus lanes allow taxis and cycles, I generally stay near primary in a bus lane but that doesn't stop taxi drivers squeezing past usually at high speed even though there is absolutely nothing in the normal traffic lane.

Mind you this is usually in Liverpool, don't know whether it's just here or whether all cities are the same but the overall standard of driving is pretty poor.

While profligate taxi use seems to be the prerogative of the privileged - eg BBC executives seem to keep taxis waiting just to lower the cash level in the jacuzzi - in an age where society is increasingly dependent on the motor car and public transport is starved of investment, taxi's and private hire are many carless people's best and sometime's only transport option. If several people are travelling together one private hire may be cheaper than several bus fares. As a road safety issue, there is now a generation of younger people who have grown up with the reality of the breathalyser and they automatically use taxi's / private hire rather than driving. I think that is to be applauded.

Driving standards can sometimes be awful. Probably a combination of things: financial pressures; the arrogance of being a "professional"; trying to offer the best service to a fare by stopping where others may be obstructed etc. On top of that the nature of the private hire business means that like other poorly-paid service industries, it sometimes tends to attract marginal labour. You can't have the economic benefits of exploiting such people without the inevitable poor training etc.

With a few exception, taxis are run for the convenience of people who don't want to take the bus. They're chauffeured cars, privately owned and privately commissioned.
If taxis can use special lanes why not full cars like in Leeds?

I don't understand why taxis get to use bus lanes either. Do they displace private car use like buses do (i.e. the average occupancy of a taxi is more than of a car?)

EdinburghFixed wrote:I don't understand why taxis get to use bus lanes either. Do they displace private car use like buses do (i.e. the average occupancy of a taxi is more than of a car?)

Taxis presumably reduce demands on parking spaces, but instead increase congestion (by driving around empty).

They can use bus lanes because rich people make the laws, rich people use taxis, and rich people don't want to queue.

skrx wrote:

EdinburghFixed wrote:I don't understand why taxis get to use bus lanes either. Do they displace private car use like buses do (i.e. the average occupancy of a taxi is more than of a car?)

Taxis presumably reduce demands on parking spaces, but instead increase congestion (by driving around empty).

They can use bus lanes because rich people make the laws, rich people use taxis, and rich people don't want to queue.

To counter that I'd suggest taxi's do make a car-free life more attractive thus possibly encouraging people to give up their cars.

I wonder how many people who have given them up wouldn't have if taxi's didn't exist???

kwackers wrote:I wonder how many people who have given them up wouldn't have if taxi's didn't exist???

Outside of Britain's capital cities where car ownership is problematic and public transport good, I wonder how many people have given up car ownership who can afford to run one and previously had a car?

Very few I'd guess.

My neighbour over the road is a very normal sort of chap and a similar sort of age to me. I've known him since we moved here in 1975. He was a motorcyclist of a sober kind for many years then took lessons and passed his test so they could have a car. Worked very hard all his life and was made redundant in his mid-fifties (and spent the next few years with bits and pieces of security jobs etc.) Around the time he got the car, his mother had a stroke, came to live with them and a lot of his motoring was chauffering her around + her wheelchair (I presume her attendance allowance helped with the cost.) They looked after her very well as she became increasingly infirm and she survived into her 90's. Very soon after that he had an epileptic fit and surrendered his driving licence. His wife cannot drive. Recently he has had both hips replaced, partly because of the nature of his old job as a semi-skilled labourer. He stopped needing crutches, just as I got mine, to general local amusement. When they do their weekly shopping - and bearing in mind that most of our village shops disappeared years ago - they get the bus a couple of miles into Morley to the supermarket. Then, horror of horrors, they get a private hire home with the week's shopping. From my casual observations at various supermarkets, including one I use in a pretty depressed area of Leeds when I shop for my own mother, this sort of "outrageous extravagence" goes on quite a bit.

I know there are all sorts of issues here to do with our society's increased dependence on the motor vehicle, but I'm amazed at some of the IMO arrogant, self-righteous "I'm a cyclist and I'm saving the planet" out-of-hand condemnation of people using taxis (and around here that word includes private hires) I've read on here.

thirdcrank wrote:Then, horror of horrors, they get a private hire home with the week's shopping. From my casual observations at various supermarkets, including one I use in a pretty depressed area of Leeds when I shop for my own mother, this sort of "outrageous extravagence" goes on quite a bit.

I've done the same (not with shopping, I can carry that, but very occasionally with larger goods).

I still don't see a reason taxis should have priority over other cars.

Thirdcrank Well said. It is very easy to become a cycling fascist and forget that other people have different wants and needs