Cab Drivers are the worst

DonDaddyD

This thread is a rant and rave purely dedicated to Cab drivers!

Dear Cab drivers

OK I get it, you’re on the clock. You've got an over anxious person expecting you to reduce a 20min journey, lengthened more so by traffic, to five minutes. You’ve got an unreasonable controller shouting ‘over’ down your radio asking “Where the hell you are?” I can understand the pressure of being expected to be back at base minutes after leaving, with a customer, with your car miraculously empty and ready to pick up another customer.

The above coupled with the Insurance, Cab License, Tax, MOT and Fuel costs must be terrible. I commend you on your service of helping people get from point A to B.

However, this does not give you an excuse to ignore the rules of the road, all other road users and becoming an overly aggressive purely offensive driver.

It would be most grateful if you could consider the following:

You are not Lewis Hamilton. Your car is not a vehicle with limited slip-differentials so good you can take a corner at 40-50mph and not swing out wide. Your car does not have brakes so good it doesn’t stop the car but in-fact prevents the world from spinning – so slow down in good time. The green bit at the lights that has the bike painted on it is the advanced stop line for bicycles and not an opportunity for you to stop on so that when the lights go green you can speed off ahead of all the other traffic. The give-way line is something your front bumper should stop behind (then creep forward) not the middle of your car so you can block oncoming traffic into giving way to yourself. The cycle lane is for bicycles and not two of your tyres. An inch or less isn’t enough space when overtaking me. Driving down a one way road (in the wrong direction) very quickly doesn’t make it OK. It’s a road where vehicles can only travel in one direction. When the sign says you can’t turn right, left etc unless it states an exception this also applies to you. The other side of the road is for oncoming traffic and not for you to drive on when you’re trying to get ahead of a queue of traffic. The curb is not there for you to mount. Your wing mirrors have blind spots so you have to turn your head to actually view the part of the world that is behind you and not covered by the mirrors in your car. An amber light doesn’t mean go through very quickly. Indicate when you want to turn and switch lanes. A driving license is something you need to legally drive on the roads in England.

The road is not yours and my safety is not there for you to gamble with.

Please take this into consideration. You are fast becoming collectively the worst drivers I have ever experienced.

Regards

DondaddyD

always_tyred

There is a rants thread, you know.

what about AUDI driving minicab drivers?

AndyManc

'Professional' :roll: drivers, some of the biggest tossers on the road.

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Clever Pun

I don't see this... most cabbies are at least aware you're there which a lot of the driving public aren't. might be a bit close now and again and they share our bus lanes but I've never had a problem

not talking about mini cabs as that's just a punter in a car

cougie

I'm not sure I agree - sure there are some to$$ers out there - but these guys drive clearly marked cabs - if they f*ck up - they lose their livelihood.

lost_in_thought

I think you get the occasional muppet in any vehicle, but I have to say I do feel safer around black cabs - they do drive for a living and the consequences of hitting a cyclist are potentially even worse for them.

Minicabs, on the other hand...

DonDaddyD

I had an encounter with a mini cab where he was driving on the wrong side of the road heading towards me. My only conclusion after having bailed onto the pavement was that he was trying to kill me.

I'm too big not to be seen - if your heding straight towards me. If he couldn't see me he shouldn't be driving.

I do agree Mini Cabs are far worse and to whom most of my frustrations are aimed. But I don't much care for Cabs either and there are some horrid ones in Croydon.

Littigator

I agree with Triple D here, although on the list of infrations only in relation to mini cab drivers. 9 times out of ten if a car passes me behaving in some way like a complete tit it is no surprise to see that little blue sign in the rear window.

Black cabbies aren't incompetent drivers...just angry impatient and a danger to cyclists. A different thing entirely

plapping

I have to agree with DDD.

Although here in Coventry cab drivers are I think less regulated than our London freinds, they are without doubt a danger to me on my commute and are by far, worse drivers than our normal car driving road sharers.

alex16zx

The bits at the front at lights for cyclists to wait in are red here!

Cab drivers get on my nerves when i'm in a car but then again I don't really do any city-centre driving or cycling and they're not too bad out on the open road! Never had any problems with them on my bike. What's a mini cab?
EDIT: just to clarify, i have heard of a mini cab, just don't really know how they operate. What is their legal status?

Bassjunkieuk

Do are we talking about black cabs or the private minicabs with those pesky green badges in the front and rear window?
I generally speaking don't have many problems with black taxi drivers and usually find it is the latter that drive like right t1ts but then I've had a few encounters with mentalist bus and coach drivers and more then a large share of ejits in "normal" cars.

At the end of the day all we can do as cyclists is ride in such a manor that we feel safe, if that means the car behind has to wait a *tiny* bit longer then so be it!

Also brilliant OP D3, I love the section of things for them to consider :-)

plapping

Black cab drivers here in Coventry are the pits!

DonDaddyD

Black Taxi drivers aren't as bad a mini cab drivers. However, since all cab drivers (Taxi and mini) have to register and be licensed in the same way I think they can all be painted with the same brush.

I've had incidents with cab drivers in general regardless of the vehicle.

tarquin_foxglove

Black or Mini cabs?

When I used to ride in London I found Black cabs very courteous & always gave me a wide berth.

Mini cabs on the other hand seem to think it is an affront to their manhood to not get as close to you as possible through the tightest gap at the highest speed etc.

The biggest danger on my ride at the moment is mums dropping kids off at school. Sudden changes in direction followed by an emergency stop when they spot a gap to park (no indication natch'), usually followed up by a couple of parked cars doing F1 starts to get into the gap in traffic which suddenly appeared (no indication natch').

biondino

tarquin_foxglove wrote:

Black or Mini cabs?

When I used to ride in London I found Black cabs very courteous & always gave me a wide berth.

Mini cabs on the other hand seem to think it is an affront to their manhood to not get as close to you as possible through the tightest gap at the highest speed etc.

The biggest danger on my ride at the moment is mums dropping kids off at school. Sudden changes in direction followed by an emergency stop when they spot a gap to park (no indication natch'), usually followed up by a couple of parked cars doing F1 starts to get into the gap in traffic which suddenly appeared (no indication natch').

Thing is black cabs do this too (much more than minicabs, who at least are going to one destination and can't be hailed) and have as such been the cause of most of my near misses. I even thank drivers who indicate, slow and pull over properly these days as it's such a rarity, and cabbies can be the worst of the lot.

tarquin_foxglove

I even thank drivers who indicate, slow and pull over properly these days

I'm glad I'm not the only one.

Shouting at bad driving has no effect so I'm hoping that positive reinforcement of good driving is the way to go, so anyone who calmly waits until it is safe to overtake me gets a 'thank you for not running me off the road' wave.

lost_in_thought

biondino wrote:

I even thank drivers who indicate, slow and pull over properly these days as it's such a rarity...

+1 I do still make my feelings known to people who try to kill me, but it's good to thank those who make a real effort not to!

Rich158

I do the same, I've even been known to slow down to allow cars to pull out of side turnings from time to time.

I had an amusing incident this morning, travelling down Shooters Hill at at reasonable speed in the bus lane, I saw a car indicating to turn right at the traffic lights. As the bus lane ends about 50 yards further back from the lights I started to slow up to allow him/her to complete their manouvre. However they had also seen me, and slammed on the anchors fully expecting me to fly by on the inside. We both proceeded to slow to an absolute crawl giving way to the other person, until i gestured for the car to move across :roll:

It's not often a car sees me let alone gives way at this junction, so to that car driver, I salute you for being so alert, even if you did then make a hash of the manouvre.

iain_j

I thank the considerate ones too, though not so much the ones who are just obeying the rules of the road, like giving way at a give way line rather than pulling out in front of me.

I keep meeting them on steep hills on narrow country lanes. They'll stop at the top and wave me through, and all i want to do is collapse in a gasping heap but i've got to keep going cos i'm holding them up

Actually i suppose they're a good training aid.

cee

DonDaddyD wrote:

since all cab drivers (Taxi and mini) have to register and be licensed in the same way I think they can all be painted with the same brush.

Not the case here.....proper taxi's have far more strict licensing, and need to do a knowledge type thing, register with the council etcetc

minicab drivers only need to apply to the dvla for a pcv licence, and can then make pre-arranged pickups.

The extra stuff is to allow people to flag them down, but there is definately more to driving a proper taxi...(the MBH traditional Black Cabs.....although they come in a variety of colours these days.)

an rothar mor

Bassjunkieuk wrote:

I generally speaking don't have many problems with black taxi drivers and usually find it is the latter that drive like right t1ts but then I've had a few encounters with mentalist bus and coach drivers and more then a large share of ejits in "normal" cars.

At the end of the day all we can do as cyclists is ride in such a manor that we feel safe, if that means the car behind has to wait a *tiny* bit longer then so be it!

+1
TFGlove
"The biggest danger on my ride at the moment is mums dropping kids off at school. Sudden changes in direction followed by an emergency stop when they spot a gap to park (no indication natch'), usually followed up by a couple of parked cars doing F1 starts to get into the gap in traffic which suddenly appeared (no indication natch').

+1 as well - I pass four schools in a one mile stretch on y commute and I have had a few close shaves with mums on the school run spotting a space from the other side of the road and veering right across in front of me and other cyclists in their rush to get the space ahead of some other mum coming from the opposite direction.