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news
Addison Lee logo - white on black'Cycling Vigilante' catches Addison Lee minicab driver watching TV at wheel
Self-styled ‘Cycling Vigilante’ Dave Sherry has filmed a driver from private hire firm Addison Lee watching a video on his phone while driving in London.
Sherry, a bus driver by trade, noticed the screen the male motorist was watching as he rode past his vehicle towards a set of traffic lights on Regent Street in the heart of the West End.
> Video: 'Cycling vigilante' takes 'Mr Loophole' on a bike ride - but lawyer's views haven't changed
Radio station LBC has posted footage of the incident, which happened at 6pm on Monday evening, to its website.
.Initially pointing to the driver while he was next to the vehicle, Sherry moved in front of it to fully catch his attention.
He told the driver he would be reporting him to police and to Transport for London, which regulates private hire drivers.
After the vehicle moved off, Sherry said to other cyclists nearby: “Can you believe that? Watching TV he was! Addison Lee as well,” before letting out a whoop.
A spokesman for Addison Lee told LBC: "We are very grateful for having this matter brought to our attention.
"We take driver behaviour very seriously and are currently investigating."
It’s not clear exactly what was distracting the driver.
That was not the case when another helmet camera user, Lewis Dediare spotted an Addison Lee driver apparently masturbating while reading a pornographic magazine.
> Video of 'masturbating' Addison Lee cab driver made public
In 2012, cyclists staged a ‘die-in’ outside the company’s head office in Camden, North London after its founder and then chairman John Griffin made anti-cycling remarks that were widely condemned, including by MPs, and which led to a boycott of the company.
Griffin stepped down in 2014 and the following year Addison Lee launched its CycleCab initiative in association with track racing event Six Day London, saying that its cabs would now be able to carry two passengers as well as one bike.
> Addison Lee attempts to win over cyclists with new service
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Latest Comments
- David9694 6 hours 20 min ago
I hope you're all checking your insurance policies, helmets, test certificates and road tax, it's the 2024 round-up...
- check12 8 hours 1 min ago
200 people out of a close by population of how many? Just build it and stop being a wuss
- Spangly Shiny 9 hours 34 min ago
To paraphrase Field of Dreams, "Build it right and they will come: and use it!"
- Rendel Harris 11 hours 55 min ago
And a Happy Christmas to you, road.cc staff!
- Rendel Harris 12 hours 43 min ago
The odds of not being able to find a single pedestrian - just one, note, "any pedestrian" - in an area containing more than about ten of them who...
- bikeman01 14 hours 22 min ago
I love how wannabe racer reviewers talk about fork flex under braking like their tyres are made of glue. I find traction gives long before fork flex.
- hawkinspeter 15 hours 29 min ago
They don't make them like they used to
- LongitudeLatitude 16 hours 19 min ago
Thanks for using my picture of chocolate in your opening picture. The original can be found here, chocolate! | LongitudeLatitude | Flickr.
- lesterama 16 hours 46 min ago
Fair comments. I'll put my hands up and say I got the wrong end of the stick with this one. ¡Feliz navidad! Here's a pic for the season of goodwill.
- Mike Holmes 16 hours 51 min ago
A trip down memory lane (or street) for me - Harry Quinn's bike shop was at the top of our Street and I used to spend time staring at the bikes and...
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9 comments
Anyone go onto the LBC website and look at the 'below the article' comment? A real delight.....
'This guy Dave is right up his own harris. I remember when I nearly knocked him off the bike when he was going down Bury Lane in Epping... He was fuming, I just told him to fog off !
In case you are reading this Dave, I am the guy with the Range Rover that lives on the corner of Bury lane in Epping, remember, you were screaming at me, and I came at you... You just pedaled off like a poof... !
I bet he spent the night on the phone to the police ( who have him on record as someone who needs humoring ), then just put an entry in his diary , and cried himself to sleep !'
What is it about blokes driving Range Rovers? I had a run-in with one the other evening - he'd stopped behind the first line, then just gradually crept forward until he was completely in the ASL. I looked down at the painted bike symbol, looked up at him, laughed and said "That's not a bike". He opened his door, got out, started to scream at me... and then had to leap straight back in and roar off as the lights changed.
@Brooksby, is your first name Dave? And was this in Epping? Sounds spookily similar. Then again, that's the point. This happens regularly, but you could also substitute huge Audis, VWs, Porsches etc into the equation - I live in Weybridge and the rage coming out of these luxury tanks is amusing and terrifying in equal measure
Funniest thing about that video is that not only has Mr Sherry caught the guy, but right behind him comes the legendary TraficDroid/Sonofthewinds with his array of lights, six cameras and red cards....so the guy is probably on his footgae somewhere too. Getting pinged by two of the most prominent of the "cycling vigilantes" (i don't like the phrase personally - its connotations are too negative) in one go. Obviously not his luckiest day...
"We take driver behaviour very seriously and are currently investigating."
Of course you do, the worse the better from what I can tell...
I've always looked at Addison Lee as a rung below all the other Poorly Handled Vehicles (that is what PHV stands for isn't it?) I see out on the roads, you have to demonstrate an utter level of comtempt for the law and other road users to grace one of their illustrious Galaxies.
Wasn't there a case last year where someone drove into the back of a queue of traffic, and it turned out they had a DVD player playing a film on their dashboard? Or am I misremembering...?
("Misremembering" is unintentional alternative facts).
Meanwhile the offence of jamming a speed detector is nearly enough to send you to jail. Amazing that plod and CPS see it as a non event to drive a vehicle watching TV or wanking but yet you drive with a jammer, paying attention, in a straight line, not much about the speed limit and it's almost time to visit Pongo Banks in the greenhouse.
Ok, the 'intent' is obvious with the jammer, so obvious in fact it's pretty pointless to have one as the anomoly was instantly looked into but still it's worrying that plod has now warned anyone else they face jail for that but nobody even faces jail for killing cyclists most of the time.
It's makes a change from having a wank, I guess...
http://road.cc/content/news/178197-video-masturbating-addison-lee-cab-dr...
I've seen two black cab drivers watching video content on mobile devices mounted to the dash (I took pictures of the second). Both times I reported them to the police - both times they told me it was a matter for the PCO who then told me they couldn't do anything. Let's see what Addison Lee's "investigation" brings...