Nasty cabbie

pmorgan1
pmorgan1 Posts: 173
edited April 2014 in Commuting chat
Hi all, a cabbie has cut me up this morning at his give way sign. No damage, and I managed to stay upright. Got his reg and licence number. Stopped at a traffic light. Had a chat. He was adamant I could do nothing about the situation. Told me to stay away from his lane.

Was he not risking his licence at all?

Comments

  • On_What
    On_What Posts: 516
    have you ever met a decent one?

    Old Bill worth a shout
  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    For the record: neither TFL or the cabbie licensing authority have any interest in following this up - they are only interested in disgruntled cabbie customers.

    You must report him to the police to get any meaningful action, even if its just to get his name/number on file for future incidents.
  • Koncordski
    Koncordski Posts: 1,009
    Was it in london? If so use the roadsafe reporting form. They have a reasonable record of following things up.

    https://secure.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/
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  • goonz
    goonz Posts: 3,106
    Do any of them ever give a sheet about anything other than themselves?

    glad you are ok.
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  • slowbike
    slowbike Posts: 8,498
    Years ago I got pissed off by a cabbie ....
    I asked if he realised the significance of where I worked .... looked a bit dumbstruck, till he realised that I worked in the council offices and that's where the licensing office was ... :)
    Working for the council had its benefits - admittedly not many, but licensing & trading standards were two offices that had their IT problems sorted out more promptly than others ;)
  • On_What
    On_What Posts: 516
    They are a menace, the number of times I've had cabbies pull U turns in front of me is ridiculous.
  • keyser__soze
    keyser__soze Posts: 2,067
    Koncordski wrote:
    Was it in london? If so use the roadsafe reporting form. They have a reasonable record of following things up.

    https://secure.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/

    They've been totally useless with me. Told me to go to the police each of the four or five times I reported something. Reported instances of road rage, being cut up/close overtake and being barged by a motorcyclist at some lights, they said didn't deal with anything that was an actual offence.
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  • monkimark
    monkimark Posts: 1,944
    edited April 2014
    Having been hit by black cabs on two occasions (strangely enough they were on opposite sides of the same road and within a week or two of each other) I surmise that taxi drivers have no fear of losing their jobs through something as inconsequential as dangerous driving.

    One of them changed lanes into me as i passed him in a lane of stationary traffic - he claimed it was my fault for riding too fast (maybe 20mph in a 30mph zone). I did take off his wing mirror with my elbow in the collision so not a completely one sided encounter.
    The other started overtaking me and then half way through decided to veer into the kerb to drop off his passenger, I slammed on the brakes and managed to avoid major damage, he just clipped me with his rear wing. Apparently that one was my fault for not getting out of the way!

    Perhaps you should report it on behalf of the customer if that's all TfL are concerned about?
  • rjsterry
    rjsterry Posts: 29,789
    pmorgan1 wrote:
    Hi all, a cabbie has cut me up this morning at his give way sign. No damage, and I managed to stay upright. Got his reg and licence number. Stopped at a traffic light. Had a chat. He was adamant I could do nothing about the situation. Told me to stay away from his lane.

    Was he not risking his licence at all?

    "His" lane is it? Wot, coz he pays road tax?

    Did almost get taken out by a U-turning cabbie on Ludgate Hill a couple of years back. Much to my surprise, a passing pedestrian started having a massive rant at him through his window, while I caught my breath by the kerb.
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  • cookeeemonster
    cookeeemonster Posts: 1,991
    To put into context:

    Most of us interact with traffic containing dozens of cabbies every day - and pretty rarely do they cause us any trouble...but like bad cyclists/bus drivers/white van men/etc/etc/etc there is a bad minority who give the others a bad name and that's what we remember.

    There are plenty of ok ones out there ;)
  • elbowloh
    elbowloh Posts: 7,078
    Black cabbies i have generally found ok, apart from the sudden pull to the kerb from anywhere on the road and the u-turn.

    Now, Addison Lee drivers are a different matter. They have no rules, it's every cab/vehicle for themselves. Drive like its a stock car race.
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  • tgotb
    tgotb Posts: 4,714
    I think the difference is that black cab drivers are generally competent, but many of them think they're entitled to do whatever they want, hence the unpredictable U-turns. If a black cab hits you they probably did it on purpose (this has happened to me twice, and in both cases the driver admitted it was intentional).

    Addison Lee drivers, by contrast, are generally less competent. They're less aggressive than black cab drivers, and if they hit you it's probably because they had no idea you were there. We've all had a few near misses along those lines.
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  • pastryboy
    pastryboy Posts: 1,385
    Koncordski wrote:
    Was it in london? If so use the roadsafe reporting form. They have a reasonable record of following things up.

    https://secure.met.police.uk/roadsafelondon/


    I reported about half a dozen drivers using mobiles them giving location, license, time, etc.

    Zero acknowledgement or response in every case. Without any 'evidence' I imagine the opening poster would find the same.
  • Colinthecop
    Colinthecop Posts: 996
    pastryboy wrote:
    I reported about half a dozen drivers using mobiles them giving location, license, time, etc.

    Zero acknowledgement or response in every case. Without any 'evidence' I imagine the opening poster would find the same.


    Keep up the good work though.... 8)
  • roger_merriman
    roger_merriman Posts: 6,165
    TGOTB wrote:
    I think the difference is that black cab drivers are generally competent, but many of them think they're entitled to do whatever they want, hence the unpredictable U-turns. If a black cab hits you they probably did it on purpose (this has happened to me twice, and in both cases the driver admitted it was intentional).

    Addison Lee drivers, by contrast, are generally less competent. They're less aggressive than black cab drivers, and if they hit you it's probably because they had no idea you were there. We've all had a few near misses along those lines.

    this was my experience as well, mini cabs are just painfully bad drivers, black cabs are much better drivers but they take risks and like buses have no problem being more than just assertive.

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