roythebus wrote:
The council are wrong to say only "yellow badge cars" can use the bus gate, ANY licenced hackney carriage can use it if that's what the sign says.
The only mention of the word 'yellow' is in the article editorial, not the council's statement. And it's yellow *plate taxis*, not yellow badge cars:
Evening Express wrote:
Currently only yellow plate taxis are permitted access to bus gates, while private hire taxis are prohibited and subject to fines should they use them.
'Yellow plate taxis' are indeed what we'd call a hackney carriage on here for clarity. They're obviously using the word 'taxi' generically to mean both HC and PH, and then using 'yellow plate taxi' and 'private hire taxi' to distinguish between the two. But the signs simply say 'taxi', hence the confusion...
Roy wrote:
If we refer back to the London Addison Lee private hire/use of bus lanes case that went to appeal, they lost. The judgement was that private hire cars aren't public transport. So I suspect if this case ever gets to court, that judegment would have to be taken into account.
Indeed. But it doesn't look as if the council is actually trying to keep PH out of the bus gates or lanes, since the article says as much, and PH already allowed into the bus *lanes*.
So I suspect the root of the problem is just an oversight as regards the order for the bus gates, confused by imprecise terminology, and probably prolonged by Covid.
As I said, the HC and PH trades in Aberdeen are one and the same really - same offices, same metered tariff and same driver qualification. So I doubt if real intention was ever to keep PH from using the bus gates, and it's all a cock up.