Tom Anderson wrote:

I will try to persuade the housemate to make a complaint,
but i doubt he can be bothered.

Minicab fares are not controlled, so there is no-one you can complain to who
will care. A letter to the local paper might hit the company in the pocket,
but the minicab company knows where your friend lives and how to break
windows.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

On Feb 22, 2:05*am, Mizter T wrote:

Additionally many minicabs will also have a more obvious TfL "Private
Hire" roundel (grey with blue bar) on display too, which allows them
to pick up and set down passengers on red routes - this is shown in
diagrammatic form on this TfL webpage (can't immediately find a photo
on the web):

I wondered what those were for - thanks.

Though I don't understand why anyone - taxi, private hire, car, lorry
or anything, should be stopping on a Red Route other than in a
designated parking bay, as that negates the whole point of *having* a
Red Route in the first place.

Neil

Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 22, 2:05 am, Mizter T wrote:

Additionally many minicabs will also have a more obvious TfL "Private
Hire" roundel (grey with blue bar) on display too, which allows them
to pick up and set down passengers on red routes - this is shown in
diagrammatic form on this TfL webpage (can't immediately find a photo
on the web):

I wondered what those were for - thanks.

Though I don't understand why anyone - taxi, private hire, car, lorry
or anything, should be stopping on a Red Route other than in a
designated parking bay, as that negates the whole point of *having* a
Red Route in the first place.

And yet London's traffic basically works, on the whole. Junctions tend to be
the pinch points.

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Since minicabs are only supposed to perform pre-booked journeys, I see
little justification for allowing them to pick up on red routes, because
finding the right person, checking they are the right person and
reprogramming the satnav takes so much longer than someone hailing a taxi,
saying where they are going and zooming away.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.

On Feb 26, 2:03*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Neil

On Feb 26, 4:33*pm, Neil Williams wrote:

On Feb 26, 2:03*pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:
Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. *Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I should get round to offer the counterpoint to the above, if only to
balance things out.

In message
,
Mizter T writes

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. *Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I should get round to offer the counterpoint to the above, if only to
balance things out.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to point out that a Taxi driver
isn't a 'shifty minicab driver'.

Apples and Oranges innit?
--
Steve Fitzgerald has now left the building.
You will find him in London's Docklands, E16, UK
(please use the reply to address for email)

In message
,
Neil Williams writes

Another way of reducing the impact of this might perhaps be for taxis
to accept Oyster PAYG?

"Oi guv', you'll need an OEP if you wanna go sarf of the river" ...
--
Paul Terry

Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 26, 2:03 pm, "Basil Jet"
wrote:

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would
become, in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the
taxis would always sail past and never pick you up. The huge number
of one-way roads and banned turns mean that a taxi pulling around a
corner from a red route to pick someone up might be putting the fare
up by a fiver - it would significantly reducing the capacity of the
fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis setting down on red
routes is harder to justify.

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

That'd work well - as long as the card has enough cash loaded for those
journeys from Heathrow discussed up thread, with some change left over.

£100 should do it...

Paul S

On Feb 26, 6:30*pm, Steve Fitzgerald ] wrote:

Mizter T writes

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I should get round to offer the counterpoint to the above, if only to
balance things out.

(A somewhat clumsy sentence on my part, but YKWIM).


I'm sure someone will be along shortly to point out that a Taxi driver
isn't a 'shifty minicab driver'.

I wasn't suggesting they would be.


Apples and Oranges innit?

I'm totally aware of the difference (I be a Londoner after all!), and
wasn't confusing them together, though I see that what I wrote may
have successfully confused nonetheless!

I was thinking that the suggestion was perhaps to give both Taxi *and*
minicab drivers the ability to take payment by Oyster PAYG - but
thinking and reading it through again, given 'Basi Jet' and Neil were
discussing stopping on red routes and were in apparent agreement that
minicabs needn't have this right, I suppose Neil was only thinking
about black cabs (proper Taxis, whatever you want to call them).

FWIW I think there is an argument in favour of letting minicabs stop
on red routes (i.e. what is currently allowed), though the best place
for me to put it forward would be in response to Basil Jet's post
upthread.

On 26.02.10 18:30, Steve Fitzgerald wrote:
In message
,
Mizter T writes

Agreed to some extent, as setting down is so much slower as there is a
financial transaction to perform. Another way of reducing the impact
of this might perhaps be for taxis to accept Oyster PAYG?

Err, see what started this thread - giving shifty minicab drivers the
ability to devour your Oyster PAYG credit probably ain't a winning
idea.

I should get round to offer the counterpoint to the above, if only to
balance things out.

I'm sure someone will be along shortly to point out that a Taxi driver
isn't a 'shifty minicab driver'.

Apples and Oranges innit?

Some Taxi drivers themselves are extremely shifty.