People in charge in London are doing it completely wrong:
A limit should be placed on the number of private minicabs in London to prevent "huge congestion", the capital's outgoing transport chief has said.
1. Why pick on them? All vehicles cause congestion equally.
2. If you restrict the numbers, this is a barrier to entry, so people who get a licence will be able to charge higher prices than otherwise, and it destroys the jobs of those refused a licence.
3. If you want to get congestion down, what does work is the Congestion Charge.
Sir Peter told LBC radio: "I don't want to wind up with huge congestion on London's streets, created by [minicab drivers] driving around looking for work"
Ooh, the irony.
4. AFAIAA, minicab drivers are not allowed to drive around looking for passengers. They have to wait for a passenger to book one via a minicab office to meet up at a specific point (often outside the minicab office).
5. Neither are minicabs allowed to use the normal taxi rank at the best spots in front of stations etc, the entrenched 'official' taxi drivers have managed to get themselves the exclusive right to these, I'm not aware they've ever had to pay a penny for this privilege.
6. So if he wants less congestion overall, increase the Congestion Charge; if he specifically wants fewer mini cab drivers round looking for work, then either enforce the existing rules properly, or allow them to use taxi-ranks.
7. Surely, there is a natural upper limit of minicabs which are economically viable, which they can fine tune by increasing or decreasing the Congestion Charge, and then the problems all sort themselves out.
8. And any sane person walks or takes the Tube in London, it's about three times quicker than a car and a lot cheaper.
Saturday, 27 June 2015
Restricting the number of minicab licenses?
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5 comments:
Completely agree, especially this: "And any sane person walks or takes the Tube in London, it's about three times quicker than a car and a lot cheaper."
And with computers it's easy enough to sort out your route if you're not local. I can go to the TFL website and put in "Paddington to street name" and it will give me a tube or bus route.
I suspect cabs are mostly used by lazy buggers who are billing expenses to their employer.
"And any sane person walks or takes the Tube in London,"
Off-peak, I found a bicycle was best, but that was twenty years ago.
TS agreed re lazy buggers.
B, you can still do that if you are feeling suicidal.
any sane person walks or takes the Tube in London, it's about three times quicker than a car and a lot cheaper.
Not with luggage and not a lot cheaper when there are 4 people
C yes fair enough.
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