Taxi Driver Online

RUMOUR! has it that Addison-Lee chairman has issued an instruction to all his drivers,after learning that no authority enforces the use of this bus lane. All drivers are to make full use of this bus lane when returning to London from points out west. This will no doubt cause drivers in the black cab industry to have fits!!!. Mr,J.Griffin has taken this view in light of recent e-mail traffic between enforcement agencies,in which they all deny responsibility .

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GMB PDB London Branch President
Vice-chair National Organising Committee
07956-884076
www.gmbpdb.org.uk
AFFORDABLE CCTV FOR EVERY LICENSED DRIVER
www.gmbpdb.org.uk/gmb-cctv.htm

If there is no-one to enforce it, or nobody knows who enforces it, then best every licensed PH fills their boots.

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IDFIMH

It will do nothing but push the authorities, whether it be the Met Police, The Highways Agency or TFL on behalf of the above to enforce it stringently.

The bottom line is there's a traffic order prohibiting Minicabs or any other vehicle for that matter, other than Buses, Solo M/Cycles or licensed Taxi's, from using it.

And that's the law in black and white.

Of course we all know what clown posted this all over the internet so every Minicab driver between here and hell now knows there is currently little or no enforcement.



Anyway Don, I've heard you and the GMB are as welcome as a fart in a spacesuit up at Addy Lee HQ, as John Griffen has said old Flanagan should be put down.

I'd like to say I don't condone such behaviour from London's main Minicab boss.

Much.

it was all a [edited by admin] ploy to get them to drive down there and thus get fined

sometimes you really do miss the obvious

I'm not infallible, which may come as a surprise to you.

But we both know before it was posted all over the web, that only a few officials from TFL, a certain loud Railway Union rep with no mates at Heathrow had possession of the official news that no one was enforcing the M4 Bus Lane.

They are!

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Grandad,

if the law is on side then no need to worry! it may even push the authorities to take action..............it all works out in the end!!

If AL want to take what they read on the net as gospel then more fool them, i'd credit them with more sense...........i think i'll start a rumour up that London taxis are going to pull over and allow AL cars to take street jobs, should make for an interesting evenings work when J.Griffin puts out that text message

I thought they did anyway?

The M4 is a bit of a sticky wicket, the Highways Agency isn’t an enforcement agency as such and they usually shy away from any action like that leaving it to the Police.

The Police in this case are treating it as a low priority, and even if they did not, pulling cars over from the outside lane (The Bus Lane) of a Motorway across three lanes to the hard shoulder is an H&S nightmare and I can see why they don't do it.

TFL can't do it as they would have to adopt the M4 from J3, which they aren’t going to do, which leaves it back with the Met and whether they are willing to do some form of CCTV enforcement.

Obviously any Taxi can use this lane, and the camera operators will have a job determining what constitutes a Taxi from a plate on the back. Most county Minicabs (PH) look like county based saloon taxis.

Logistical nightmare awaits, and one which the Minicab industry will be taking full advantage of until it’s rectified.

Still time will tell, hope you're earning well.

G.

Enforcement is possible by CCTV. If a database can't identify it as a legitimate user, a ticket will be issued automatically. That puts the onus on the driver to prove bus lane entitlement.

considering the time of year i'm doing ok................

I think eventually a CCTV system will be used as enforement either static or mobile on the gantries (actually, not sure there are any gantries along that bit) but i guess until that happens then it will contnue to be a free for all as it has been for some time until either a motorcylist is killed or they are given full access to it.

I've found your boss's take on Addison Lee.

Eloquently put as ever.




Educate, organise, agitate etc etc plus the usual unnecessary 34 exclamation marks.

Must be a Union thing.

More on this from the LTDA:

http://www.taxinewspaper.co.uk/

Biggest and best.

Back in the news:


The M4 bus lane is hardly being enforced - with only a handful of penalty notices issued to drivers who wrongly use the lane each year.

BBC London has learned that just 14 £60 fixed penalty notices were issued in 2008 with just six so far this year.

Minicab company Addison Lee - which is not allowed to drive in the lane - has now told its drivers to use it.

The 3.5 mile lane on the motorway into west London was launched by then-Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott in 1999.

But there are no dedicated cameras watching the bus lane - and the Metropolitan Police have said policing it is not a priority.

A spokeswoman said: "The Met is constantly balancing our aim to improve safety on London's roads with making the most effective use of road policing resources.

Steve McNamara, of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, said: "It's absolutely farcical. We've got a bus lane that no-one enforces - what is the point in having it?

"The world and his mother is using it. It's supposed to be a bus lane - it's anything but, and soon it will be too congested for buses to use."

He added: "It's actually very dangerous. You can be going down the bus lane at 50mph and someone pulls out from stationary on the inside.

"I've seen untold near misses and it's only a matter of time before someone gets killed - all a matter of lack of enforcement."

Only buses, coaches, motorbikes, emergency vehicles and licensed taxis can use the lane, which runs between Heathrow airport and central London.

Journey times improved for all types of traffic in the first three months of the £1.9m lane, according to Transport Research Laboratory figures.


But Edmund King, AA president, said: "At times the M4 bus lane seem like an M4 ghost lane - it is under-used and under-policed.

"Currently it is a white elephant.

"If we can't find ways to make it more efficient perhaps it should be opened to all."

A Highways Agency spokesman said: "Apart from emergency service vehicles, the only other vehicles allowed to use the lane are buses, licensed taxis and motorcycles. Private hire vehicles are not allowed."

Not in London they won't.