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Brixton Liveable Neighbourhood and LTN schemes - improvements for pedestrians and cyclists

Although Uber's technology seems a superior way to match cabs to people than either black cabs (circling empty and flagged down) or old school mini-cabs (sent from a local office but almost certain to do a return trip back to the office empty).

Pre pandemic Uber cabs also circuled around empty in West End and City. Why the Black Cab drivers I know correctly imo saw Uber as a hail and ride service in direct competition to them that should have been banned . As it was not traditional mini cab service.
 

[under the bonnet you'll find] a 1.5-litre Volvo petrol engine – but it doesn’t deliver any power to the rear wheels. Instead, it’s used solely to top up the car’s batteries. This important detail makes the TX a range-extending EV rather than a hybrid. LEVC says the TX is good for 377 miles between top ups, though only 80 of those miles would be using batteries alone.

Rough figures put the old taxi at around 18-22 mpg, and the new one at 35 mpg


That's pretty poor fuel consumption for new and truly terrible for old.

So its not a hybrid then.

Not sure what is your point. Do you want to see end of Black Cabs?
 
So its not a hybrid then.
Not sure what is your point. Do you want to see end of Black Cabs?

There were a few guesses about what the new cabs actually were. I didn't know so I looked them up.

Seems a bit of a grey area. My understanding is that a 'plug in hybrid' only has to be able to cover 20miles on full electric. the new black cabs claim 80, which is a lot more than that but also a lot less than full electric vehicles and probably less than a black cab drives in a normal shift. So their emissions will depend on whether they are actually charged or just driven on the engine. I've seen reports that most plug in hybrids are just bought as a company car tax dodge and never actually get plugged in - don't know if that's true or not. I'm guessing the cost saving is probably enough to ensure Black Cabs do get used electric as much as possible. The fuel consumption for both new and old seems poor.

Do I want to see the end of black cabs? No, but nor am I sure they should necessarily be preserved in aspic. Having cars driving round empty looking for business seems wrong whether their black cabs or Ubers. Ubers do it presumably because they're not allowed on cab ranks. Black cabs presumably do it because they don't have Uber style matching to find customers. "The knowledge" seems to have much less value than it did when google or Waze will give a live routing that takes into account current traffic (and most black cabs seem to use it outside the smallish central zone that they're required to know about.

We definitely need disabled accessible taxis but does every taxi need to be disabled accessible? Maybe not once you're matching customers taxis with an app rather than flagging one down. I don't know. I rarely use black cabs but as a non-disabled passenger their main benefit seemed to be that they could carry 4 or 5 passengers rather than 2 or 3 in a conventional car but in less comfort.
 
So its not a hybrid then.

Not sure what is your point. Do you want to see end of Black Cabs?

Personally I don't see the point of them. No other city has them. Obviously it's someone's livelihood, but I don't see the point of them. Take the bus. Cycle.
 
There were a few guesses about what the new cabs actually were. I didn't know so I looked them up.

Seems a bit of a grey area. My understanding is that a 'plug in hybrid' only has to be able to cover 20miles on full electric. the new black cabs claim 80, which is a lot more than that but also a lot less than full electric vehicles and probably less than a black cab drives in a normal shift. So their emissions will depend on whether they are actually charged or just driven on the engine. I've seen reports that most plug in hybrids are just bought as a company car tax dodge and never actually get plugged in - don't know if that's true or not. I'm guessing the cost saving is probably enough to ensure Black Cabs do get used electric as much as possible. The fuel consumption for both new and old seems poor.

Do I want to see the end of black cabs? No, but nor am I sure they should necessarily be preserved in aspic. Having cars driving round empty looking for business seems wrong whether their black cabs or Ubers. Ubers do it presumably because they're not allowed on cab ranks. Black cabs presumably do it because they don't have Uber style matching to find customers. "The knowledge" seems to have much less value than it did when google or Waze will give a live routing that takes into account current traffic (and most black cabs seem to use it outside the smallish central zone that they're required to know about.

We definitely need disabled accessible taxis but does every taxi need to be disabled accessible? Maybe not once you're matching customers taxis with an app rather than flagging one down. I don't know. I rarely use black cabs but as a non-disabled passenger their main benefit seemed to be that they could carry 4 or 5 passengers rather than 2 or 3 in a conventional car but in less comfort.

An experienced Black Cab driver ( pre Covid) didnt spend much time circling around. Circling around is waste of time.

They would come out at certain times to get the trade. For example when the West End shows start to end in evening. Taking people home or to railway stations.

Or do the hotels. Which were pretty exclusive. Had friend who just passed knowledge. Went to Black Cab rank outside a big hotel. Was ignored by the Doorman. The "regular" Black Cab drivers snubbed him. He learnt his lesson and realised they had it sewn up and didn't go again

Black Cab trade depended on London being a place for business people, wealthy tourists and entertainment.

Like a lot of us London work is based on servicing the rich or City. That is just how it is.

So a lot of workers are having a hard time now..

Talked to a few Cab and van drivers today. The new road restrictions around Liverpool street, Bishopgate, north of Old Street and Euston road are giving them a headache. Form their point of view they are struggling anyway due to Covid. So this is just more to deal with.

Uber drivers are variable. Some know their way around. Others spend their time doing U turns in front of me as they have missed turning the Satnav told them to use.
 
When I lived in NZ and Aus there was no such thing as a black cab or minicabs (or at least where I lived, Australia is a big place) - but there were taxi cabs that were normal sedans/vans that were badged/signed as taxis - and they sat in ranks inbusy areas, could be ordered or flagged. They were not necessarily that much better than black cabs for the paying customer, but they seemed a little more user friendly and slightly cheaper. Although the proof was in the pudding as they still were monstered by Uber, just like the blackcabs.
 
No. You might remember the phrase was 'south of the river'. Never, even had racial connartations, except it seems in your head.

The calculation is 'when I drop off the customer, will I get a pick up to take me on, and referably back to the centre'. It's about, as they call it, 'dead mileage'.
Ha. You sound so certain about that. Before I stopped hailing black cabs because I was so sick and tired of the racist, homophobic bile I used to hear from about 20% of them, especially late at night, I developed quite a good sample of the cabbie culture. Not pretty. There were also some extremely nice guys, of course. But as previous posters have pointed out, it's also a fairly closed shop as a profession if you're not white and male. So the facts speak for themselves.

Refusing to pick someone up because of "dead miles" is outside the terms of the license, as you presumably know.
 
sure, 'racism' serves the narrative better doesn't it. That whole 'south of the river' thing was always bogus. Thank goodness we have you on watch.

Perhaps you could draw us something in MS Paint to illustrate the point, it's all the rage to prove facts.
 
[QUOTE="thebackrow, post: 16702902, member:

We definitely need disabled accessible taxis but does every taxi need to be disabled accessible?
[/QUOTE]

On this point: yes.
 

[under the bonnet you'll find] a 1.5-litre Volvo petrol engine – but it doesn’t deliver any power to the rear wheels. Instead, it’s used solely to top up the car’s batteries. This important detail makes the TX a range-extending EV rather than a hybrid. LEVC says the TX is good for 377 miles between top ups, though only 80 of those miles would be using batteries alone.

Rough figures put the old taxi at around 18-22 mpg, and the new one at 35 mpg


That's pretty poor fuel consumption for new and truly terrible for old.

That is AWFUL. I assume 35mpg is city driving only but still......a half decent diesel (cough) engine was doing at least 40-45mpg city YEARS ago.
 
That is AWFUL. I assume 35mpg is city driving only but still......a half decent diesel (cough) engine was doing at least 40-45mpg city YEARS ago.
Idling time? I'd guess Uber or Addison Lee drivers also get far smaller mpg than their engine is capable of because it's part of the way they operate. Cabs of all sorts mostly seem to leave their engine running during pickup, setdown and waiting, and black cabs have theirs running while they edge forward on ranks at stations etc.

Idling engines are a bit of a bee in bonnet for me tbh, the sooner all combustion vehicles have auto stop-start engines with a stationary cut-off the better.
 
Yes. Unless you can fly him to his specialist provision in Greenwich.
Blue badge holders should be allowed through, I’ve said it to my councillor. Does it really take 45 mins extra to get out of Brixton?. The rush hour traffic yesterday didn’t seem that bad.
 
Blue badge holders should be allowed through, I’ve said it to my councillor. Does it really take 45 mins extra to get out of Brixton?. The rush hour traffic yesterday didn’t seem that bad.
But they're not, there is no provision to let blue badge holders through. All the side roads that they would normally cut through are closed off, they have to go down Dulwich way which apparently is jam packed like never before with traffic so now going to try through Camberwell which they traditionally avoided as too busy and time consuming. Cabbie is saying he might have to refuse the job.
 
As an enthusiastic supporter of LTNs, I'm delighted to report some very high-class lacrosse action under the Shakespeare Road railway bridge tonight. Initially mistook it for shinty but knew it was too good to be true.
 
As an enthusiastic supporter of LTNs, I'm delighted to report some very high-class lacrosse action under the Shakespeare Road railway bridge tonight. Initially mistook it for shinty but knew it was too good to be true.
Gentrification. Right. There.
 
A loose version of lacrosse was played in 1100AD. It's one of the toughest, most violent, games in the world. Hardly gentrification.
Oh come on.

 
Lacrosse was only played by the hard nuts when I was in school...I went to a comprehensive in Wales... although that was a long time ago :)
 
Oh come on.


Lazy stereotype. Lots of working-class people play shinty or lacrosse.

England's Sam Patterson explaining why the team could not afford to defend their European title four years ago: "We do the best we can, and that means being self-motivated and self-dependent - if you don't have money and resources you need to find other ways of doing things." Patterson estimates he has forked out upwards of £20,000 of his own money during more than a decade with the England team. A lot of this goes towards travel, but equipment costs are not cheap either, especially for a team whose makeup is very much working-class. More than half of the 27-man international squad are based in Manchester, where there are several top-level teams, and many work as tilers, joiners or similar when they're not representing their country. Consequently, he doesn't begrudge those who decide to move away from the sport once things like families and mortgages come into the equation."
 
i heard this woman on Radio 4 Today programme this morning. She is campainer for improving air quality. Her daughter died of asthma. Here is her view of recent LTN in her area.
Ms Kissi-Debrah said it was “unforgivable” to make the changes during a pandemic.

She said: “The numbers from the BAME community on this side are more than on the other side. The other side is more affluent.

“It’s environmental racism.


Basically she is saying LTNs displace traffic onto main roads. In London a lot of people live on what are classified as main roads. Causing more pollution on those rods.
 
But you will be pleased to know that Lacrosse can be played in the car free streets. That is progress. So your son's inconvience is minor now that sport can be played in the street.

:rolleyes:

And my son is not alone, this means that every single child with additional needs who receives school transport will be affected. And many children travel out of borough to access the correct provision, already on long journeys because the resources are scant in their local neighbourhoods.
 
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