Call for congestion/pollution charges to be applied to black cabs

Spangly Shiny wrote:

Cabbies in London are increasingly going electric, check this out.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-LSYG9rJdVM

Listening to the radio recently one cabbie commented that he was seeing more business since going electric because the punters prefer EVs. So over time the diesel pollution problem will just go away. Patience people!

Well, good news in a way, but, God, it's taken them long enough!  Should have been mandated by law years ago.

I can see one, and only one, argument for black cabs.  Which is they probably feel safer to a  woman travelling on her own late at night.

Against that, the obnoxious selfishness of the LTDA has made me hostile to the whole lot of them.  They don't seem interested in the wellbeing of anyone but themselves and maybe a few high-earning media/political types they see as useful allies.  And they have a kind of class-privilege-by-proxy because their customers are disproportionately wealthy and influential.

Awavey wrote:

look whilst criticism of black cab drivers attitudes towards lots of things and not just other road users, are totally valid and reasonable criticisms to lay on them, surely in the bigger picture of public transport provision for a city like London, black cabs are a vital part and some might even say necessary evil.

I can see the logic of that argument but, as raised by SKC, surely the major issue is how much of the time they are empty and driving around the city looking for their next passenger. That makes them no different to a passenger car really. 

To account for that why not charge half the congestion charge?

I would argue emergency vehicles are much more vital, but they still have to pay it. And if NY has already done this, maybe look at the evidence of the difference it made there. 

Awavey wrote:

look whilst criticism of black cab drivers attitudes towards lots of things and not just other road users, are totally valid and reasonable criticisms to lay on them, surely in the bigger picture of public transport provision for a city like London, black cabs are a vital part and some might even say necessary evil.

Because if you start to treat black cabs as no different to private vehicle in terms of cost encouragement terms, then chances are youll just increase the number of private vehicles on the road as you price the cabs off it, which will do nothing to aid pollution, or congestion or anything in London. There is a limit on the number of black cabs in London, theres no such limit for private cars.

So it would be far better IMO as means to cut pollution from cabs, I think the current rules say a cab can be upto 10 years old, to work towards maybe halving that age and say only 5 years maximum by 2025, maybe 7 years by 2022 etc, on the basis newer cars are more fuel efficient/less polluting etc and maybe incentivise encourage more hybrids or alternate fuel cabs, as I think in New York their limit is either 3 or 4 years, which is why you never see the classic old style cabs anymore.

I'd question whether cabs are really 'public' transport as most of the public can't afford to use them.  And if pricing cabs off increases the number of private vehicles, perhaps the solution is to increase the charges on those private vehicles, and restrict where they can go, to deter them in turn?

 Cabs use a greatly disproportionate share of throughfare-space for the passenger trips they make.   I don't see how that is justifiable.

  Plus I don't see how black cabs are any great improvement on private vehicles.  They seem worse, in that they spend a lot of time cruising round with no passengers, and tend to be _more_ polluting on average, as they are all diesel.  They also seem to create one of the more obnoxiously anti-social special-interest lobby groups in the city.

Rick_Rude wrote:

Bring on driverless cabs. The drivers are more problematic than the pollution.

Bring on driverless electric cabs, and you nail the pollution* too.

(*well, at least locally. Hopefully the power generation isn't belching black smoke somewhere...)

TedBarnes wrote:

Rick_Rude wrote:

Bring on driverless cabs. The drivers are more problematic than the pollution.

Bring on driverless electric cabs, and you nail the pollution* too.

 

(*well, at least locally. Hopefully the power generation isn't belching black smoke somewhere...)

With more sparkling wit and IQ than a London cabbie

CarlosFerreiro wrote:

"you don't even pay any congestion charge"

Allowing black cabs to get away with not paying congestion charge, seems like quite an impressive amount of government subsidy...

StoopidUserName wrote:

Top trolling!! They know it’ll never happen of course...but as black cabs protest about EVERYTHING that might affect them and block roads at the drop of a hat (while moaning about other protests) fuck ‘em. It’s worth it just to wind them up. The hate they spiel on social media against cyclists is beyond belief.

Not just social media.

Any item on the radio concerning cycling on the radio gets them calling.

I listen to LBC and frequently think "that must be another one" the presenters have spotted this as well and they often ask if the caller is a black cab driver and it is amazing how often the answer is yes.