Taxi Driver Online

Southampton council's plan to ban certain taxis from bus lanes

SOME taxis could be banned from using bus lanes in Southampton as city bosses try to crack down on air pollution.

Taxis and private hire vehicles licensed outside of Southampton could be allowed to access bus lanes in the city only from 7am to 9.30am and from 4am to 6.30pm on weekdays and only if the vehicle was first registered on or after January 2006 if petrol and September 2015 if diesel.

A public consultation on the proposals will run from January 29 to February 22 and comes after initial plans to totally ban taxis from bus lanes in the city sparked criticism.

Civic chiefs said the move will improve air quality and will not be "detrimental" to businesses.

But the plans have so far sparked mixed views with some traders raising concerns.

Clive Johnson, honorary chairman of Radio Taxi Southampton, said he fears the changes will result in more pollution and higher fares for the public.

"They should save tax payers' money and not trying to make money on more fines. Put it back on the back burner", Mr Johnson said as he stressed that businesses have been hit by the pandemic.

But other traders want the changes to be implemented as soon as possible.

Sam Shahid, Southampton hackney representative, said to be in favour of the proposals.

Ali Haydor, Southampton private hire trade representative, said: "We want this process to be completed fast and this restriction put in place for outside vehicles immediately. Anything less then what is now proposed, we will not accept."

Cllr Steven Galton, shadow cabinet member for transport, said the plans would "waste money" and "create confusion".

He added: "Non Southampton taxis can use bus lanes when it's busy, but not when its not busy and they have no need to use them anyway as it's not busy. What are Labour trying to achieve here, except wasting money and potentially creating more congestion once again."

But Cllr Steve Leggett, cabinet member for green city and place, said: “We consulted on the Clean Air Zone in 2018 and as an alternative to a charging Clean Air Zone, taxi operators expressed a preference for something which offered them time to become cleaner and greener.

"This is exactly what we are aiming to do. We are supporting our taxi trade transition to low emission vehicles and 40% of the taxi and PHVs licensed with the council are now low emission vehicles.

"This is amongst the highest in the UK and we continue to lead the way with licensing standards that aim to deliver the safest, highest quality CAZ compliant fleet by 2022.

"Collectively, we believe these plans are delivering tangible improvements in local air quality with the minimum impact on operators and customer fares.”

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IDFIMH

I wish these councils could get it into their thick heads it's not taxis causing pollution it is the vastly increased number of car owners encouraged by a government and civil service whose palms have been continually greased for the last 70 years by the SMMT

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

I suspect this has precious little to do with pollution and everything to do with keeping non local taxi/PH out of Southampton.

Hopefully schemes like this will spread eastward.

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IDFIMH

This if applied possibly would result in every TAXI or Private Hire vehicle only being able to access bus lanes in their own licensing authority.
It could possibly fall foul of the Equality Act.
But it could be a nice little earner with all the fines for the Council.

Eastleigh taxi drivers ask to be allowed to use bus lanes in Southampton

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/191275 ... uthampton/

SOUTHAMPTON City Council is being urged not to ban Eastleigh taxis and private hire vehicles from bus lanes in the city.

As previously reported, taxis and private hire vehicles licensed outside of Southampton could be allowed to access bus lanes in the city only from 7am to 9.30am and from 4am to 6.30pm on weekdays and only if the vehicle was first registered on or after January 2006 if petrol and September 2015 if diesel.

A consultation on the proposals closed last week.

But some traders are calling for Eastleigh taxis and private vehicles to be allowed to use bus lanes in the city at all time.

It comes as Southampton and Eastleigh share some licensing services.

Stephen Lucas, hackney representative in Eastleigh, said drivers have been upgrading their vehicles over the past years to help reduce carbon emissions.

It came as in 2017 taxi drivers in Southampton and Eastleigh were given a £250,000 grant to help them “go-green”.

But Mr Lucas said: “Now it looks like we are going to be excluded from the bus lanes. I think it does not make sense. They have not said how any of that policy would improve pollution levels.”

Traders claim the current proposals would increase traffic and journey times.

Kevin May, owner of Eastleigh-based K&K Hire Ltd, said he has a contract with the city council to drive children with special educational needs to school.

He said: “That will make the school run even longer. We have invested heavily to put electric cars on the roads and now they are just saying we are not supposed to use bus lanes.”

Ian Hall, chairman of Southampton Hackney and Private Hire Association, backed his colleagues.

Paul Holmes, MP for Eastleigh, said the policy is “badly thought out” and he has raised concerns with the city council. Cllr David Airey – cabinet member for transport in Eastleigh, said he hopes electric and Euro 6 standard vehicles licensed outside Southampton could be given access to the bus lanes at all times.

Southampton City Council said it worked with Eastleigh Borough Council for several years “sharing licensing services” and to secure grant funding.

But it said there is no formal Clean Air Partnership between the two councils.

In a statement the city council added: “Specific licensing standards are set by the individual licensing authority and that remains the case with Eastleigh and Southampton. We have introduced stricter standards on emission to address poor air quality, such requirements have not been introduced in neighbouring authorities. The current proposals aim to limit access to our bus lanes in order to encourage outside taxis to be cleaner. Offering any dispensation to Eastleigh vehicles would undermine the effectiveness of our stricter licensing conditions and would be unfair on other neighbouring authorities. We believe these plans are delivering tangible improvements in local air quality with the minimum impact on operators and customer fares.”

Without looking at the earlier pieces, this new article reads as clear as mud, particularly the highlighted paragraphs, which are supposedly the specific rules


Southampton bus lane rules brought in for out-of-city taxis

https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/194464 ... ity-taxis/

TAXIS from outside of Southampton will no longer be able to use bus lanes in the city other than in peak times.

Southampton City Council has announced that private hire firms that only have city-licensed vehicles will be able to use bus lanes.

It adds that, as well as this, to be eligible vehicles must have been first registered after January 2006 for petrol cars and September 2015 for diesel cars.

Those who do not fit this criteria are not obligated to abide by its rules on emissions, and so will no longer be able to use the lanes.

Environment chief Cllr Steven Galton said the steps will “work towards our clean air goals but will also benefit our local taxis and PHVs”.

He added: “We have one of the safest and cleanest taxi fleets in England and I personally want to thank all operators for supporting our efforts. We have only achieved this by being ambitious with our licensing conditions and by working closely with our taxi trade.”

The peak times when all vehicles will be able to use the lanes are between 7-9.30am and 4-6.30pm on weekdays with the restrictions set to be implemented on September 1.

City private hire organisations say they are “delighted” and Southampton private hire trade representative, Ali Haydor, who previously dressed as a clown and protested for this said: “For us the decision is fantastic because it shows that this council has recognised that they should be prioritising Southampton vehicles.

“The previous administration introduced low emission on Southampton vehicles but they didn’t do anything for out of town. This means that the drivers who work in Southampton, now have an incentive to be licensed by Southampton.”

Chairman of Southampton Hackney organisation, Sam Shahid added: “This is brilliant for the city as we all want greener cleaner and safer city.”

That reads to me like even older Southampton-plated cars are banned from the bus lanes.

But the earlier piece says that out-of-area cars will be allowed to use the lanes at certain times, and they also have to be the newer models.

This latest piece also reads like the older out-of-area cars will be allowed to use the lanes at peak times, but I don't think that's right.

So it looks like the only definite that can be taken from the latest piece is that the proposal will defo be going ahead.

diesels Euro 6 only and no Eastleigh PH or Uber in a nutshell

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

Well thanks for clarifying it all

well sometimes you can be a little verbose

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

But the article was confusing and misleading, and your take was even worse.

Call me verbose if you want, but many of the articles, disputes, suspensions, violence and aggression featured on here are due to confusion and lack of clarity about this, that and the next rule.

Could list several examples, but don't want to be accused of verbosity

But I prefer clarity to confusion and conflict. And if others don't, then tough

I must have special specs because it all sounds quite straight forward to me.

Southampton taxi/PH that are Euro 6 can use the bus lanes 24/7.

Southampton taxi/PH that aren't Euro 6 are banned from the bus lanes at the peak times mentioned.

All non Southampton taxi/PH are banned from the bus lanes at the peak times mentioned.

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IDFIMH

It's so convenient to lay all the pollution on Taxis and PH cars while the mostly empty buses which emit more black sooty smoke than a first world war dreadnought are seen as Gods gift to saving the planet.

I suspect the so called pollution excuse is merely a ruse to cover the anti non local taxi/PH issue.

And well done to the council for that.

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IDFIMH

Well my comments were aimed primarily at the latest piece, and how reading that in isolation is as clear as mud. The eariler pieces made a bit more sense.

But one of us is seeing the thing through the looking glass. And obviously I think it ain't me

Anyway, just to keep things straightforward, let's ignore Southampton-plated cars.

And call the 'peak times' the rush hours, and just use Eastleigh cars as an example of non-Southampton cars...


So you're saying Eastleigh cars are banned from the bus lanes at rush hours?

So what does this mean in the latest piece?

This reads to me that all vehicles (thus including Eastleigh cars) can use the lanes at rush hours, thus the *opposite* of what you're saying...


Which is consistent with what the earlier articles said:


But the times don't even make sense anyway - the second period includes the first period

But presumably 4am should actually read 4pm, which seems to be confirmed from the latest piece, which just says 4-6.30pm.

So basically the earlier proposal was to allow Eastleight cars only to access the lanes at rush hours, and only if they're Euro 6 compliant.

But the latest article seems to be saying that all cars can access the lanes at those hours. To repeat:


But ignoring the am/pm error, the earlier proposal was that Eastleigh cars would only be allowed to access the lanes at rush hours, and only if they're Euro 6.

You're saying totally the opposite as regards timings, and aren't differentiating between Euro 6 cars and earlier cars.

Are you saying that the earlier proposal wasn't actually implemented? If not then I can't see how you can construe the latest piece in the way you do.

To clarify the latest piece I'm assuming that the earlier proposal is the one that's actually being implemented...