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news
Video: London cabbie who made punishment swerve on cyclist fined £280
A London taxi driver who was caught on film making a close pass on a cyclist has been fined £280 and had his driving licence endorsed with five penalty points, as well as being ordered to pay £115 in costs.
Video of the incident, which took place close to Paddington Station in West London, was posted to YouTube last April by Cycling Mikey, who filmed the incident.
The cyclist was riding west along Westbourne Terrace and decided to stay on the main carriageway, instead of using a short stretch of protected cycle lane, as he is entitled to do by law.
The cab driver clearly thought otherwise and as he overtook the rider as he passed him with inches to spare at a point in the road where the road narrows due to a traffic light on an island.
Cycling Mikey continued through Lancaster Gate to pick up Cycle Superhighway 3 at Hyde Park and caught up with the taxi driver at the Serpentine Gallery, where the pair exchanged words, with the cyclist noting down not only the cab number but also the one on the driver’s badge.
In the video description, he said: “If you were using a hammer, you'd be in jail right now. Because you used a far more dangerous weapon, a 2 tonne taxi, that's OK is it?”
Cycling Mikey has a New Year’s resolution, by the way. On 1 January, he tweeted: “My New Year's resolution is to be more diligent about timeously uploading and reporting driver road crime. I let loads slide last year because I was tardy.”
Note: The original version of this story mistakenly stated that the cab driver was fined £225 rather than £280 - thanks to Cycling Mikey for letting us know.
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.
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26 comments
I'd like the ID but I don't want to do any actual work for it. That'd impact on my cycling time!
I've often thought about getting a fake police ID knocked up so that when the usual response comes from the mouth of the motorist I can respond with "well, funny you should mention the police...".
However, the fact that I'd get a harsher punishment than said driver often puts me off!
https://www.met.police.uk/car/careers/met/police-volunteer-roles/
Reminds me of an incident near London Bridge. I had asked the Met dozens of times why they weren't prosecuting ASL abusers, cycle lane parking etc etc etc. The driver got a 'driver awareness course'.
They kept informing me that 'education works'. I asked them for peer-approved research which demonstrated this. They waved their virtual hand and said 'it's on the home office website'.
Anyway, I was on the approach to London Bridge, stopped at a red light next to a mandatory cycle lane. A black cab was parked inside the cycle lane. I mentioned it to the driver.
He leaned out of his cab and feigned a surprise look on the ground.
'Why .. so I am, eh! Fancy that! You know what? You should call the police! Go on, let them know about it!'
He then burst into a loud laugh, ran the red, did a U-turn and drove off the other way, with his right arm out of the window, and his middle finger up.
He didn't give a shit, because he knew his chances of being sanctioned were nil.
I forwarded the video to the police. 'Here's that "education" in action', I said.
Silence.
Of course, the reason the drivers get 'driver awareness' courses is because the police force in question gets to keep a cut of the fee. It's money. It's always about money.
The cabbie in the video above did something far more serious than just stopping in a cycle lane, of course. But the principle is the same. The cast-iron, unassailable sense of entitlement in the face of cyclists. This driver will go to his grave, fully believing that he did nothing wrong, and that he is the 'victim' of a system which is 'unfairly biased' towards cyclists. All part of the 'war on the motorist' that this fuckwit undoubtedly believes exists.
And your cabbie won't be alone. I suspect that the majority, or a pretty large minority, of motorists would agree with them
Remember, everybody: 37p per person per annum spent on cycling, and an eight year freeze on fuel duty, counts as "A War on Motorists".
https://tfl.gov.uk/help-and-contact/contact-us-about-taxi-and-private-hire
Us cyclists always blow these attacks by tonnes of metal out of proportion - it's not like he's going near a horse on a bike is it?
Good grief, his bike sounds like it could do with a service!
Agree. Reckon a bit of electrical tape on the rack under the pannier mounts to prevent it rattling, plus a new bottom bracket to stop that front mech chain rub.
It's just some frame resonance plus some rattle from my D-lock. Ride the bike and you'll see that it's actually running like a sewing machine.
His advertising on his cab should go up in smoke as well.
howoften do cab permits come up for review? Surely any points that have been accrued should count against renewal
I think you just automatically pay your annual fee to the local council, nothing more to it than that.
I got clipped by a taxi at that exact junction, coming from the road on the left (Paddington), god only knows how I stayed upright and didn't end up under the Taxi's wheels, took skin off my elbow! Met didn't do anything in the end
Sorry to read about your experience.
TfL told me that once the sentencing details come through from the court, they will review his green badge. I very much doubt he'd lose his taxi licence over this.
No excusing that arrogant driving, well done cycling Mikey for getting an outcome that wasn’t a driver improvement course. But no excusing that cycling infrastructure either. If the road provides a more expedient route than the cycle lane, then it’s failed.
Someone needs to rework the traffic light sequences at that junction.
That's most infra in the UK swept away then
Example: my ride home is out from Bristol along the A369 to Pill.
Leaving Suspension Bridge Road in Leigh Woods, you have two options:
(1) You can stay on a road which is 40 mph speed limit and then rises to 50mph. But, it *is* swept clean by the action of motor vehicles, and you can just keep on trucking: no need to stop for anything other than two sets of traffic lights (one user-controlled, one for a junction). But you do get frequently close passed, and (in my experience, YMMV), hooted at or shouted for not using the adjacent shared-use path.
Or, (2) you can use the adjacent shared-use path. It's cleared of leaves and detritus once a year (usually just before the leaves all start falling off the trees again). It doesn't get cleared of snow (the few times we have snow) or litter. You have to use a pedestrian crossing to get over Beggar Bush Lane (*three* separate light controlled crossings, technically not toucan so you are *supposed* to get off and push). There are two side roads to cross, with give way painted on the shared-use path. There are entrances to a sports centre (give way), and further along there are innumerable driveway entrances and a farm entrance perfectly placed at the bottom of a hill. Finally, to actually get where I'm going, I have to cross the 50 mph section at the bottom of a big dip in the road, using a pedestrian refuge in the middle (they wouldn't put lights in because "it would hold up the traffic"), to get onto a new section of shared-use path (driveways), before finally being dumped back onto the road in Pill anyway.
Remember, everyone, we're *encouraging* Active Travel...
straight on cycle lane inside a left turn only lane. I'm guessing Mikey used the road because of this?
Fat nacker, hope he has a heart attack and does everyone a favour!
As it is, this is an aggravated assault and should be treated as such, piss poor outcome!
Only if he does it in the privacy of his own home, thereby not causing an accident or taking a valuable ambulance away from a more deserving individual.
Only if he does it in the privacy of his own home, thereby not causing an accident or taking a valuable ambulance away from a more deserving individual.
Should he be allowed to keep his black cab license considering he's used it as a weapon?
Wow! A whole total of £340! Considering what getting in a black cab costs, that seems puny
Hopefully the 5 points will see a large rise in insurance and won't help with cabby licence renewal.
black cab drivers will just consider it as a cost of doing business
Surely then it took you back to a time before brunion, when we were once again on our own.
By 'eck, I've not heard the word 'timeous' since I was in Edinburgh about fifty years ago. Proper took me back it did, to a time before helmets and Brexit and battery powered gears.