Taxi destroys bike

[SilverSaloon]

Hi

On my way to work thismorning, i was driving along - noticed that just up the road a taxi was doing a U-turn in busy traffic - pretty much ignoring the fact that it was very busy and decided that he thought he ruled the road

anyway, he did his turn and just as he was more or less facing the other way, he cut up a poor cyclist and almost ran him down - bike was pulled under front of the car and the guy jumped off the bike. Bike was probably still ok.....

taxi driver stopped. instead of stopping and reversing to avoid further damage, the taxi driver decided it would be best to try and continue driving forwards and thus dragging the entire bike under the car and destroying it.

The poor cyclist just stood at the side looking stunned.

i think the women inside the taxi as passenger thought the driver had pulled the cyclist under the taxi....!

bloody taxi drivers!!

 

[BonzoDog]

If you cycle in London you quickly become aware that you are not the motorists favourite road user. I cycled regularly in London up until about 10 years ago. One of the surprising factors is, that if you take care you can establish routes that are relatively or totally car free. The London Cycling Campaign was quite useful in producing some good maps. Now and again though the streets were unavoidable and I suspect most people have a few stories. I remember once in stationary traffic I crossed a line of cars while pushing my bike. The car driver looked me in the eyes and drove into my bike knocking it down. I was too amazed to do anything. Buses used to like squeezing me onto the pavement and you had to be able to get out of the way quickly. You soon learn that the aim is provocation and it is best not to enter into a discussion.
However, there are some extremely aggressive cyclists who give all of us a bad name. So just as all taxi drivers are not bad, so all cyclists are not bad or don't mean to be.

 

[scotth_uk]

I am a regular London cyclists - every day to and from work. About 14 miles per day in total.....

Sadly, most of the other cyclists that I see are hopeless. They break every single rule in the book and give the rest of us a terrible reputation.

Taxi drivers, in my opinion are generally pretty good to me. I can understand their sometimes negative views of the two wheeled maniacs.

:-(

These days I ride on the road, stop at every single red light, keep up with the flow of peak hour traffic and don't take chances.

 

[MBManInKen]

all cyclists are not bad or don't mean to be.

I live in central London and so do regularly drive there. I agree that not all cyclists are bad but frankly the majority of them are fairly agressive and have no regard whatsoever for the rules.

They weave in and out of the traffic, overtake left, right and centre and completely ignore the traffic lights.

I'd like to give them their right space but they sure do their very best to annoy and alienate the car drivers.

And when I'm a pedestrian, I regularly am almost run over by cyclists on the pavements or going through the red lights ignoring pedestrians using zebra crossings.

 

[MBManInKen]

Taxi drivers, in my opinion are generally pretty good to me.

In general, taxi drivers are quite good in London, I certainly by far prefer to be in front, behind or next to a taxi as opposed to one of the many morons driving in this city - motorised or otherwise.

 

[Flash]

Cyclists should be made to have insurance too. If a motorist is in a collision with a cyclist then the cyclist is entitled to claim where if a cyclist is in a collision with a vehicle then there is nothing that the motorist can do legally apart from pursuit through a small claims court IF details of the cyclist are obtained.

I had one cyclist weaving in and out of traffic in London and he smacked the bike into the front wing of my Sprinter and he rode off - just as well for his sake he got away! I had to have my entire wing re-sprayed at body shop and cost me £150.

 

[Brian WH]

Cyclists should be made to have insurance too. If a motorist is in a collision with a cyclist then the cyclist is entitled to claim where if a cyclist is in a collision with a vehicle then there is nothing that the motorist can do legally apart from pursuit through a small claims court IF details of the cyclist are obtained.

My son regularly rides about the City of London. He has many near misses and two accident, fortunately not too serious.

The first involved a pedestrian who stepped off the kerb without looking and knocked my son off his bike. Nobody to claim off there then?

The second was when he was stopped in the middle of the road waiting to turn right and was knocked over by a passing taxi. My son was unhurt by not very amused, and told the taxi driver so in words of one syllable.
The taxi driver started shouting something like, I have a whiplash injury. Yes right I bet.

 

[BonzoDog]

I live in central London and so do regularly drive there. I agree that not all cyclists are bad but frankly the majority of them are fairly agressive and have no regard whatsoever for the rules.

They weave in and out of the traffic, overtake left, right and centre and completely ignore the traffic lights.

I'd like to give them their right space but they sure do their very best to annoy and alienate the car drivers.

And when I'm a pedestrian, I regularly am almost run over by cyclists on the pavements or going through the red lights ignoring pedestrians using zebra crossings.

Have to agree, I've seen a lot of it and Scot th too by the sound of it. I think it helps if you are also a driver. One of the principles is owning your piece of road and positioning yourself appropraitely and clearly.
When it comes to the pavement I did plenty of that in London and still do now. My thinking is, it keeps me out of the traffic. However it only works when there are few pedestrians around. The golden rule is that they have the right of wayand one should not in any way compete for space.

 

[Shude]

The first involved a pedestrian who stepped off the kerb without looking and knocked my son off his bike. Nobody to claim off there then?

Just remember that pedestrians have priority over practically everything, if not everything!

 

[Brian WH]

Just remember that pedestrians have priority over practically everything, if not everything!

Not when they walk sideways into moving traffic they don't???

The only priority they have then is a hospital bed.

 

[scotth_uk]

I am definitely not in favour of riding on the footpath. Bikes aren't meant to be there.

 

[LastMinute]

The first involved a pedestrian who stepped off the kerb without looking and knocked my son off his bike.

I've had that happen to me, too. I was livid. Yelled at the doddering old fool I'd just skittled ("The red man means DON'T cross the road!"), then got some flak from a passer-by who clearly knew nothing about anything ("You want to watch where you're going.").

 

[blue190]

I am definitely not in favour of riding on the footpath. Bikes aren't meant to be there.

Can you impart this wisdom on to all the scrotes around here??

 

[scotth_uk]

The first involved a pedestrian who stepped off the kerb without looking.....

Had this happen to me this morning. Pair of dopey young female teenagers looked right at me as they stepped out on to the road, and were a little taken back as I unleashed verbal hell at them. I was doing 19mph at the time!

Neither of them made a sound. Hopefully they learned some new words today.

 

[BonzoDog]

Can you impart this wisdom on to all the scrotes around here??

I guess you mean me? I think it is best that I leave this discussion.

 

[Carrotchomper]

I was cycling with a bunch of mates once on a cycle-path, merrily chatting away and failed to notice that the few in front of me had parted to let an old chap cycling towards us through. I went head first into him. Not very fast, no harm done, but he was so rude to me, would you believe the cheek!!!!

 

[Rose Chap]

I guess you mean me? I think it is best that I leave this discussion.

Maybe its just me, but I read blue190's post as meaning the cyclists (or scrotes if you will) where he lives, rather than the members of this forum.