Taxi Driver Online

Terrible driving? Smile, you’re caught on Portsmouth cabbie’s camera!


CANDID camera footage of Portsmouth’s bad drivers has been uploaded to the internet by a frustrated cab driver.


John Croxall keeps a rolling video camera on his dashboard to capture the errors some drivers make on a daily basis.

The taxi driver has uploaded four eye-opening videos to his YouTube channel so far, including a driver dangerously cutting across traffic to turn right and a vehicle crossing the hatchlines to join the M275.

But the Aquacars driver, who works between 10 and 12 hours a day, said bad driving was not exclusive to Portsmouth – and hopes his work will help tackle a national problem.

Mr Croxall, of Wymering, said: ‘Taxi drivers generally have a bad name and I’m trying to put the other side of the coin across by uploading these videos.

‘Portsmouth is a city that attracts a lot of tourists and businesses from outside the city and I do try and make allowances for visitors who are not used to the city’s roads. I usually have a sixth sense to upcoming errors and can see them happen before they occur.’

It’s not just car drivers who feature on his videos – one two-minute clip shows a bike rider crossing a roundabout in Cosham with no lights on.

Mr Croxall, who moved to Portsmouth 20 years ago, has been a taxi driver for two years after being made redundant from his previous job.

He installed an on-board camera to catch those who run from his cab without paying a fare but admits he enjoys editing the footage into films.

‘As a taxi driver, we do encounter people who do “runs” and I have the camera in my car for evidence if they do it’, added Mr Croxall.

‘I found out that there are people out there who cause accidents on purpose and claim on your insurance, so I installed the camera to protect myself.’

The video-making fanatic has pin-pointed the M275 and side roads on Copnor Road and London Road as hotspots for bad driving.

He said: ‘You can capture examples of bad driving anywhere and if you don’t see at least one a day there is something wrong.

‘The majority of people drive efficiently enough but you get the odd few who think they own the road.’

‘I talk to a lot of friends about what we see on the roads and once you get out of the city you’ll see it’s the same everywhere. The motorway is not so bad but it’s once you’re in the city that mistakes are made.’ Mr Croxall said he will continue to upload videos on to his YouTube channel.

‘At the end of the day, I’m sure there will be a lot of response saying how bad taxi drivers are but I would like to think that I am one of the good ones’, he added.

http://www.portsmouth.co.uk/news/transport/terrible_driving_smile_you_re_caught_on_portsmouth_cabbie_s_camera_1_3252256

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

He is getting rightly slated in the comments section of that paper.

What a fool, if people cut me up, I just smile, life is too hard to be worried about poor drivers. Just do your best to avoid them and make sure you have a pen and paper ready in case you don't.

If I were filming bad drivers then it would stand to reason that my own driving would have to be seen as exemplary to make the bad appear even worse...Has the camming Cabby never done a bad thing on the road ever?

It seems somewhat sad that anyone other than the police would want to film the mistakes of their fellow road users..Its right up there with those Cyclists that make mischief out of using bullet cameras on their little polystyrene and placcy skid lids just to intimidate other vehicle users. Its not big brother spying on people theses days....Its Everybodys brother

Once again it's a taxi getting the blame for what PH does , reading the comments from the PCC sponsored newspaper you can see it a mile off what people think of taxis all thx to PH.

Great to see the stereo's on there, a Range Rover cutting in a busy motorway instead of going down and rejoining the other side of the roundabout, mind you the amount of gas they use I suppose you would risk your life to save a thimble full eh.

Cyclist is at least wearing reflectives, probably better than the flashlight method anyway.

Zafira, hmmm, my brain urts I can't think to turn left and turn around I'll cause an accident instead and then try to blame the other driver.

Basically it's all down to the fact that 200k of folks are sharing one brain cell there, and sometimes more than one person at a time wants to use it.

It would be a more interesting video if he could find a cyclist with lights, surely?

And he doesn't do himself any favours by maybe following the cyclist a tad too closely - two wrongs don't make a right.

Adjusting the camera while driving doesn't really do him any favours either.

The first car at the roundabout as well - FFS surely he could come up with worse cases than that - that seems to be about the norm at roundabouts

Worst is the car turning right though. Doesn't the cabbie himself move to the right too soon and drives over the hatched area?

And the car that's in the wrong lane is clearly indicating right, but the cabbie effectively ignores him and they almost collide - not exactly evidence of defensive driving.

The company he works for is 70% immigrant drivers now, they sit oncoming on full lights on the wrong side of the road, pull out on you constantly, drop on ranks, sit on chevrons, sit around the kebab houses for unbooked custom, this is a perfect model of cheap fares, you pay peanuts and get monkey's, British drivers won't work for them anymore, a constant flow of £2.80 fares in traffic with no meter and then up to 20% discount on accounts and suicide rates like the hospital contract to Scum for £16.

Pure greed on the part of about ten people involved with the company, btw, some of their drivers are still of good quality but the overall picture says one to avoid.

I thought that was compulsory for all cab drivers

Seems to be now doesn't it.

Surprised he didn't also mention that the right-turning Zafira was earlier sitting at the lights with its footbrake on, and also that one of its brake lights was out

Are people blind to see why LA's tend to err on the side of caution when permitting cabs to have CCTV?

ffs

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

If you type portsmouth bad drivers into Youtube search you get a load videos by a cyclist of cars jumping red lights ! If its anything like here the only way through some lights is on red


including this one

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA7FFmrFiLo

I hope he doesn't work for the same firm as the one doing the videoing

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lack of modern legislation is the iceberg sinking the titanic of the transport sector