London Cycling Campaign

I complained a few weeks ago to AL about a cab that overtook me when I was driving at just over 20mph in a 20mph limited road full of parked cars and possible kids crossing - he must have accelerated to around 35mph midday on a Sunday  - they said they would retrain the driver ! ! ? 

This content was deleted by StewartP at 12:32pm 16 Apr 2012.

I don’t see why black cabs should have the right to use bus lanes either. They are vastly overpriced and carry a very small percentage of the daily commute. I would much rather see more busses in the bus lanes rather than more cabs. Bus drivers are much more professional than any cab driver

Very worried by this and glad others have spotted it ... it was in the Guardian this morning

ttp://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/apr/16/london-cab-firm-drivers-bus-lanes?INTCMP=SRCH

Addison Lee drivers are appalling at cutting cyclists up. I've also spotted them using mobiles whilst driving on many an occasion. Complaints directly to the company have got me nowhere.

If Addison Lee gets away with this, it's only the thin end of the wedge before ALL minicab firms will be using bus lanes and then we'll have even fewer safe lanes to use.

On the whole I find black cab drivers pretty careful with cyclists, so happy to continue with bus lane rules as they are.

We've put up a story about this today, warning people to be careful of minicab drivers breaking the law, and arguing that cycle lanes must be kept as a relative safe haven for cyclists:

http://lcc.org.uk/articles/london-cyclists-warned-to-beware-of-private-hire-cars-illegally-using-bus-lanes

How about we all email Addison Lee every time we see a problem.

There would be so many emails they would then have to do something

We should boycott Addison Lee and encourage others to do the same - see www.tinyurl.com/boycottAddisonLee

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This is the well thought out comments of the cyclists that ride with the Highway Code first in their mind and actions?  

“Why would I want to pay road tax (which doesn't exist)”? 

So I pay my Road Tax every year or have they stop it and still take the funds from us? 

 Then we get the comment “then road cyclists such as myself could enjoy long rides in the country without annoying motorists” so you do ride badly to get at us drivers.

 I have to live with the fact that my HGV will kill this comment if they ride badly in and around my passage to earn!

Only a complete idiot could come up with the comment “it costs me nothing to ride there bike”, as it cost us to foot the bill for damage and RTA’s!

 All Bike owners should be happy to do a M.O.T type of safety once a year, in South Africa they do this and have 

insurance. Bike action causes hundreds of pounds worth of damage to cars, people and commercial traffic every year. 

All bikes should also be made to have insurance, hi-vis jacket and Mot.

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/addison-lee-pull-out-of-bus-lanes/012992

Addison-lee are now instructing their drivers to respect bus lanes until the outcome of the judicial review.

Article linked above mentions 800+ tickets @ £130 a penalty notice (figure from tfl website ) that's potentially £100K+ if the judicial review goes against them. Bit of a gamble...

Off topic: In the past few weeks i've seen both cyclists and black cab drivers in bus lanes purposfully going very very very slow in front of addison lee cars. Made me smile.

~John

Update:

Addison lee lost their judicial review and were told to pay TFL costs. They are pledging to appeal and take it to europe apparently. (PR free advertisiing hype in my mind)

http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/addison-lee-loses-judicial-review-pledges-to-fight-on/013339

 - perhaps they had their babies in the office, muddling their minds, on the day the policy was made !