"JNugent" wrote in message
...
On 03/10/2015 13:19, tim..... wrote:



What?

Seriously?

Because a taxi is - in its very essence - a *private* space which can
be hired by the passenger to the exclusion of others. It is not a bus.
If a bus is what is wanted, buses are available.

not from the Airport to my required destination (or even close)

Buses are still available, if not always convenient. A taxi is not a bus.

Your preferences are not a reason to abolish protection for
taxi-passengers.

But it's someone else's choice of protection, that I personally don't
believe that I need.

I know, let's ban woman going into pubs on their own - for their own
protection!

just see what an uproar that proposal would cause!

tim



HTH.

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
On 04/10/2015 14:50, Neil Williams wrote:
On 2015-10-04 13:14:08 +0000, JNugent said:

Buses are still available, if not always convenient. A taxi is not a
bus.

The hybrid matatu/jitney model works reasonably well in many countries.

A public transport operator is free to apply for the necessary permissions
to make that work.

Your preferences are not a reason to abolish protection for
taxi-passengers.

Who's proposing to abolish your ability to hire a taxi to yourself? What
is being proposed is allowing people who wish to to take a shared taxi.
Those who do not wish to can continue to take one to themselves,
obviously at a fare commensurate to that.

As I have already said, several times: that is already allowed.

It's just that the passenger decides on the sharing, not the driver or
operator.

No, the passenger has to (somehow) find the other passages, that's not the
same thing at all (and completely impractical for out of London
destinations)

In message , at 18:17:47 on Mon, 5 Oct 2015,
tim..... remarked:
It's not necessarily important for every private hire vehicle to
offer disability access, because the are pre-booked. As long as each
firm has some minimum number of such vehicles available if requested,
that should be sufficient.

That I understand

but unless that "minimum number" is somewhat larger than you might
first calculate, you either end up with the accessible cabs waiting
around all day for the one disabled passenger, or no accessible cabs
free at the time that passenger turns up.

It's queuing theory 101, not that difficult.
--
Roland Perry

"Neil Williams" wrote in message
...
On 2015-10-04 17:04:17 +0000, JNugent said:

A public transport operator is free to apply for the necessary
permissions to make that work.

Actually they aren't; there is (and I did some research on this in
conjunction with a friend in the transport industry) seemingly no legal
framework under which such a thing can operate. It fails on bus
legislation (no fixed route/restricted area of service),

All of the "jitney" type journeys that I have undertaken have been based
upon a fixed route.

Cape Town, V&A Waterfront to Station - this partly mirrors a bus route and
actually stops at the same stops. People use it because it is cheaper. I
used it because it was the first that came along - for the experience.
After twice as many people got in at the next stop as the car could hold it
was an experience that I decided not to voluntarily repeat. I got the bus
the other way (protected by the armed guard!!!!! FFS this is CT not
Jo'berg)

N Africa - Usually from the dedicated cab "Gare Routiere" (In most towns,
not to be confused with the bus Gare Routiere) to the place named on the
front - which is in Arabic so I couldn't read it. Or hailed anywhere on the
route, but as they usually insist on leaving full, the chances of doing that
much before the final stop is slim.

On the subject of picking up a "friend" on the way, one of the journeys that
I did in some, out of the way less used route, the driver stopped to make a
delivery of some items to a local bar and then a bit later to drop some
shopping off at what I suspect was some relation's home.

All in all an interesting experience which the majority of tourists never
see because this method of travel is very much aimed at Arabic speakers only
(in more than one place I simply couldn't find the Gare Routiere and had to
give up and catch the train instead.)

I've no experience of Asia, the cabs don't try to rip you off in the way
that Arab taxis do (IME)

tim

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 14:47:31 on Sun, 4 Oct
2015, Neil Williams remarked:

That's no help if all I know is the name of a place, and can't locate it
on a map. If in a strange City it can be very difficult to correlate
random destinations with "points on a map".

You've used Google Maps' search facility before, I'm assuming?

Yes, and the results in strange overseas cities can often be very patchy.

Having just watched that prog on Patagonia on the Beeb, I keyed it into
Google maps to have a look (specifically to see wherever there are any roads
that access it)

It jumped immediately to a hotel in the centre of London.

Going back to the menu and adding Chile to the search and it jumped me to
the Chilean embassy in London

Bloody useless

(getting slightly back on topic, having now watched Ep2 need to find out the
route of the Patagonia express to see if that's accessible)

tim

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
On 05/10/2015 17:26, Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 15:11:53 +0000 (UTC)
Recliner wrote:
wrote:
On Mon, 5 Oct 2015 15:45:22 +0100
Roland Perry wrote:
the pavement outside the venue in the pouring rain, or perhaps five
minutes earlier when they are inside in the warm and can more
comfortably use their phone to order a car to arrive in five minute's
time?

Since thats exactly how people used to order minicabs I'm wondering
what
exactly is the killer selling point of Uber. Other than it means
Aspergers
types don't actually have to talk to a person and get all stressed.

You don't have to know the names and phone numbers of local mini cab
firms,

Google.

Obviously you like making things more difficult than they need to be.


nor explain the address to someone who may not have a shared language.

Right, because Uber drivers are always natives.

Of course not, but you seem not to know how Uber works.


Either or both parties may be in a noisy environment.

What's more, Uber probably gets you a car more quickly, you don't need
to
pay cash (a particular advantage when abroad, if you don't have local
currency), and it's typically cheaper.

Of course its cheaper - unvetted drivers whose only qualification is
owning
a car and smartphone.

Wrong again.

That is precisely the point; no-one has been (so far) able to say with
certainty that Uber drivers *are* vetted and licensed.

The fact that Uber themselves claim to do the vetting" is alarming.

I don't believe that they do

they claim that they have checked the driver has been vetted (the rest is
just lost in lazy journalism)

tim

"Roland Perry" wrote in message
...
In message , at 18:17:47 on Mon, 5 Oct 2015,
tim..... remarked:
It's not necessarily important for every private hire vehicle to offer
disability access, because the are pre-booked. As long as each firm has
some minimum number of such vehicles available if requested, that should
be sufficient.

That I understand

but unless that "minimum number" is somewhat larger than you might first
calculate, you either end up with the accessible cabs waiting around all
day for the one disabled passenger, or no accessible cabs free at the time
that passenger turns up.

It's queuing theory 101, not that difficult.

to a graduate level statistician perhaps,

to the average numpty who runs a cab office?

Hell, you can't even argue that the people who run websites are going to be
sufficiently proficient.

They are operated by "computer wizards" who, e.g. are completely incapable
of working out how to keep login passwords secure.

tim

On 2015-10-04 21:34:57 +0000, JNugent said:

They are not cabs.

There is no such thing as a mini cab.

It is a common figure of speech. You may dislike it, but you cannot
dispute that it is a well-understood slang term in London.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-05 15:02:38 +0000, y said:

Is english your 2nd language? When 2 words are combined they generally no
longer mean the same as each original word. For example: a riverbus isn't a
red double decker that happens to float.

Or Milton Keynes is not a city, but it is a "New City", which is a term
coined by the CNT to simply mean a large New Town.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-05 17:18:59 +0000, JNugent said:

The word "cab" still has a legal definition, even if you wish it didn't.

The word "minicab" does not share that legal definition.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.