Taxi Driver Online

Call for taxis to use bus lanes across Worcestershire

CALLS are being made to relax traffic rules around Worcestershire so taxis can use bus lanes.

Worcestershire County Council is going to debate the measure after concern people in areas like Worcester are paying too much in cabbie fares.

Back in January, bosses decided to start enforcing restrictions in Lowesmoor so only buses and emergency vehicles can use it to directly reach Foregate Street.

And on top of that, in recent years more roads across the county have opened up bus-only routes, but only Redditch currently allows buses and taxis to share those spaces.

Labour Councillor Paul Denham has now put together a motion to be debated at County Hall in July asking for a review.

"Taxis are public transport and I think they should have the same rights as buses to use these lanes," he said.

"The motion asks for an investigation about whether it's necessary to prevent them from using the bus lanes, it will apply to the whole county but Worcester is obviously my main concern."

He said his main reason behind the motion is Lowesmoor, where the county council started to enforce its restrictions after pollution hit illegal levels.

The crackdown stops motorists from using the route to access the city centre without turning left at the junction with Silver Street first.
The lights at the top of Lowesmoor now only turn green only for vehicles and cycles fitted with special devices known as transponders.

As we revealed last month, cabbies say customers are fed up after fares went up due to the change, and say using bus lanes would help ease congestion.

Councillor Denham added: "I agree that we need to restrict access through Lowesmoor for health reasons but if you allow buses to use it, you should allow taxis as well to limit the costs to the customer.

"There seems to be no sensible reason not to do it."

The motion will be put to the next full county council meeting on Thursday, July 9.

Councillor John Smith, the cabinet member for highways, said: "It's obviously something that we'll have to discuss at the council meeting.

"On the Lowesmoor restrictions I think they've worked reasonably well."

Minicab driver Colin Simkins, 38, a private hire driver, said: "We've got to charge more, it's the customers I feel sorry for."

source: http://www.worcesternews.co.uk/NEWs/13328912.display/

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Minicab driver Colin Simkins, 38, a private hire driver, said: "We've got to charge more, it's the customers I feel sorry for."
like i said before, i will never understand the minds of taxi drivers, they seem "hell bent " on driving people about for nothing