Good News! I am a spacehopper!

cee

On my way to work this morning, I was in the bus lane in primary, when a taxi overtook me very close.

Fair enough I thought, and continued.

I then passed the taxi who was stopped at lights, and continued on my merry way.

Further down the road, he passed again even closer, this time honking his horn, only to be stopped at a traffic light 15metres down the road. I passed him again, but unfortunately, couldn't get passed, so had to stop beside the his drivers window

I looked at him, without making any faces or anything and he opened his window to start a 'conversation'...

Thi sis how it went...

Him.. 'What were you doing?'
Me.. 'Sorry....what were you tryng to acheive?'
Him...'The bus lane is for taxi's buses and cycles only!'
Me... 'What am I then....a spacehopper?'
Him...'You were right in the middle of the lane!'
Me... 'Thats right, I certainly was, as I am entitled to be.'
Him...'No you are not.'
Me.. 'Read the Highway code again....I think you will find that I am entitled to the same amount of room as any other vehicle. If there is sufficient space and it is safe to do so, I will pull in to allow faster traffic to overtake, but as we were approaching a red light, after which, the traffic is gridlocked, where I am going to be much faster than you, I didn't bank on you being in such a rush to wait 10 metres down the road!'

At this point his passengers all start having a go at him and I just politley say...Have another read of the highway code, and I will hop off to work!

Laugh..... I was in tears the rest of the way to work!

linsen

Respect!

I Usually turn into a blithering idiot at times like that

always_tyred

Where abouts was that, out of curiosity?

What with all this SCRing and Richmond Parking I've started feeling very self conscious as I cycle, ensuring that I wave nicely to anyone who might be from the forum in Edbug.

Word of caution - its usually best to tackle cabbies when they have a fare. As we heard last week from leafy Lenzie, when they HAVE NOT got a fair, they are more liable to attempted murder. (Seriously though, I have noted much more agression from them when no one is watching )

On the whole, I find cabbies assertive but competent and (even in Glasgow) if you take the primary but move over to let them past, they seem to be pretty good about it.

This is black cabs, not mini cabs, obviously.

_Brun_

If I'm allowed to play devil's advocate, I don't see the point of filtering to the front of a 'queue' consisting of one car and making them pass you several times. It's pretty obvious it's going to wind them up, and there's not much to be gained on your part versus just sitting behind them.

biondino

Thing is though, if there's any sort of queue and any sort of filtering opportunity you're *usually* going to be able to get well past them, probably permanently. It's unusual for us to find ourselves genuinely stuck in traffic, and even when we are it'll probably be fine at the next opportunity.

Kieran_Burns

I had a go at a taxi (minicab) driver this morning: He overtook me on a lefthand bend and brushed my arm with his wing mirror (JUST brushed, but that's not the point)

He stopped just outside my work to drop off his passenger who worked opposite, so I pulled up and knocked on the window.

I explained his error and pointed out that he left totally insufficient room for me to avoid any obstacles and if HE'D needed to take avoiding action it would've been into me.

He wouldn't have it - but seemed to crumple a great deal when I pointed out that I do the IT support for the Council and knew the direct numbers for the Taxi Licencing people.

When I spoke to them - they explained that under the circumstances it was in fact a criminal act, and I needed to speak to the Police.

I'm not going to as it would be his word against mine, and it's a waste of everyones time... However - and this is relevent to us all:

If the Taxi driver is abusive or threatening, take a note of his details (big number on the back is all they need, and the time) contact Taxi Licencing and make a complaint.

They WILL haul the driver in and give them a right dressing down (I had a complaint against a driver who deliberately extended the journey to pad the fare upheld)

always_tyred

_Brun_ wrote:

If I'm allowed to play devil's advocate, I don't see the point of filtering to the front of a 'queue' consisting of one car and making them pass you several times. It's pretty obvious it's going to wind them up, and there's not much to be gained on your part versus just sitting behind them.

Depends on the layout of the junction. Its often best to be across it first, no matter how few cars there are.

Often its a matter of principle - demonstrably, if a car has to overtake you more than once, you weren't holding it up the first time. As such, not overtaking the first time means that the second time wouldn't have been necessary. From the description of the events, this was indeed the case.

spen666

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I had a go at a taxi (minicab) driver this morning: He overtook me on a lefthand bend and brushed my arm with his wing mirror (JUST brushed, but that's not the point)

He stopped just outside my work to drop off his passenger who worked opposite, so I pulled up and knocked on the window.

I explained his error and pointed out that he left totally insufficient room for me to avoid any obstacles and if HE'D needed to take avoiding action it would've been into me.

He wouldn't have it - but seemed to crumple a great deal when I pointed out that I do the IT support for the Council and knew the direct numbers for the Taxi Licencing people.

When I spoke to them - they explained that under the circumstances it was in fact a criminal act, and I needed to speak to the Police.

I'm not going to as it would be his word against mine, and it's a waste of everyones time... However - and this is relevent to us all:

If the Taxi driver is abusive or threatening, take a note of his details (big number on the back is all they need, and the time) contact Taxi Licencing and make a complaint.

They WILL haul the driver in and give them a right dressing down (I had a complaint against a driver who deliberately extended the journey to pad the fare upheld)

Selective get outs by the Licencing department

Threatening and abusive behaviour is also a criminal offence, but they will deal with that criminal behaviour but not the other?

Seems their excuses don't hold water

cee

AT, I turn onto Nicolson Street and continue all the way down the bridges to the Balmoral.....

The first close pass was at Nicolson Square, and the second was at the Festival Theatre....We had the blether when he got stopped at the lights at the bottom of Chambers Street/

_Brun_

I completely agree, although these were not the circumstances here. I filtered past about 10 cars as they were stopped at the lights the first time, then from when I passed him the second time, I filtered continuously for close on a mile.....as I said, it was nose to tail to whole way down a very long straight road from the conversation. After I passed him the first time, he clearly had the advantage over the other traffic as he was in the bus lane. Actually, I am pretty sure that his main beef was the fact that I was in the bus lane where he could usually go 30mph without too much holdup.

always_tyred

cee wrote:

AT, I turn onto Nicolson Street and continue all the way down the bridges to the Balmoral.....

The first close pass was at Nicolson Square, and the second was at the Festival Theatre....We had the blether when he got stopped at the lights at the bottom of Chambers Street/

_Brun_

I completely agree, although these were not the circumstances here. I filtered past about 10 cars as they were stopped at the lights the first time, then from when I passed him the second time, I filtered continuously for close on a mile.....as I said, it was nose to tail to whole way down a very long straight road from the conversation. After I passed him the first time, he clearly had the advantage over the other traffic as he was in the bus lane. Actually, I am pretty sure that his main beef was the fact that I was in the bus lane where he could usually go 30mph without too much holdup.

Ah, good, I come in at the other end of Prince's Street, so if I do anything really ignorant, it won't be you telling me what for.

That's a tight bit of road. Even on the bus lanes you aren't holding anyone up - too many busses, bus lanes intermittent, lots of people drive into them to turn left. Cabbie, no excuse/justification.

Really no alternatives to that route? - its horribly tight, and I've only ever had to cycle there in the middle of the day. I always found the pleasance more free flowing, although there is the slight problem that it goes in a different direction and comes out at entirely the wrong height.

cee

Funny you should say about a different route....last night on the way home, I decided to head up royal terrace, and down to holyrood. Went through the park, then up through the grange.

There was hardly any traffic through the park and my journey home was most pleasant.

Then on the way in today, I reversed the journey. The park was serene this morning, then I had the hill to get up onto royal terrace (ooofoofinya thats quite steep!).

Thats me then....new route from now on!

always_tyred

You inspired me to hammer on the side of a cab this morning (actually, I thought of it first...)

Cut me off against a the side of a bus, so he got the benefit of my excellent sense of rythm against his rear wing. About 2 secs later he was stopped to let his fare off. The look on his face was of complete bewilderment so I guess I had no idea that the large yellow moving object he just passed was, in fact, not one of these and had therefore not flown away: