Thank the lord my brakes work....

[Sillysimon10]

Just wanted to voice my anger about a taxi driver that decided to do a random U-turn in a bizarre place...and when I say you turn I mean attempted U-turn as his turn circle was poor it became a 3 point turn instead.
I had to slam on, skidded, stopped about a foot and a half before I would have hit his passenger door.

Needless to say I was shouting obscenities and Im half glad he had no passenger onboard at the time....

Ahh rant over....No harm done.

And to cheer me up, heres a nice photo I took on the ride...

 

[ianrauk]

Lucky you. Last time a motorist decided to do a U-Turn without checking, he knocked me off the bike....

 

[Sillysimon10]

Lucky you. Last time a motorist decided to do a U-Turn without checking, he knocked me off the bike....

Yeah, I feel like i reserved the right to be angry even though nothing bad happened. Though after what I was shouting at him, I dont think he'll be making any sudden turns without looking! Ha

 

[ianrauk]

Yeah, I feel like i reserved the right to be angry even though nothing bad happened. Though after what I was shouting at him, I dont think he'll be making any sudden turns without looking! Ha

I wouldn't like to bet on it...

 

[WiganLardster]

Dangerous situations seem to pop up when you least expect it..I guess that's what makes them dangerous. Something similar happened to me on a very quiet B-road, no other hazards around yet this dozy old woman decides to do a sudden u-turn and reverses onto 'my' side of the road, almost squishing me in the process. It was a stroke of luck that the pavement had been lowered at that point, otherwise I'd have been as non-functional as the old biddy's eyesight.

 

[Cycleops]

Just wanted to voice my anger about a taxi driver that decided to do a random U-turn in a bizarre place...and when I say you turn I mean attempted U-turn as his turn circle was poor it became a 3 point turn instead.
.

Why is it taxi drivers seem to have some sort of frontal lobotomy which involves removing any sense or reasoning behaviour from their brains as soon as they take up the job.

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

Why is it taxi drivers seem to have some sort of frontal lobotomy which involves removing any sense or reasoning behaviour from their brains as soon as they take up the job.

It's the other way round, what other job can anyone that stupid do ? The local ones , have never managed to to a TSD calculation so will drive everywhere at 60mph+ , yet will never have change ready, or come to the door to tell you they are there. They can't seem to work out that they lose more time at 0MPH than they can ever make back at limit x 2.

 

[MissyR]

Why is it taxi drivers seem to have some sort of frontal lobotomy which involves removing any sense or reasoning behaviour from their brains as soon as they take up the job.

It's the other way round, what other job can anyone that stupid do ? The local ones , have never managed to to a TSD calculation so will drive everywhere at 60mph+ , yet will never have change ready, or come to the door to tell you they are there. They can't seem to work out that they lose more time at 0MPH than they can ever make back at limit x 2.

Wow.... Stupid and lobotomy!! I am surprised I can even go a bike then!

 

[SatNavSaysStraightOn]

Wow.... Stupid and lobotomy!! I am surprised I can even go a bike then!

there could be one or two good ones in the bunch

 

[WiganLardster]

Wow.... Stupid and lobotomy!! I am surprised I can even go a bike then!

There are always exceptions, such as lady taxi drivers , and that one bloke who won 'Mastermind' back in the day.

 

[taximan]

Why is it taxi drivers seem to have some sort of frontal lobotomy which involves removing any sense or reasoning behaviour from their brains as soon as they take up the job.

I am a retired Taxi driver with 40 years of driving behind me. Can I state that while I agree with you that SOME cabbies treat the roads as their own personal race track, the vast majority are professional and considerate drivers. There are good drivers and bad drivers and in my opinion the good drivers far outnumber the bad. It's just a shame that the occasional idiot gives the rest of us a bad press.
Personally I find the frontal lobotomy remarks quite offensive.

 

[Maylian]

I once got a taxi home due to shopping I had or something. Anyway the driver then gave all cyclists a really good birth when over taking and didn't go too fast. I always judge peoples driving when overtaking a cyclist and I felt his attitude warranted a hefty tip.

2 weeks ago I had a taxi driver pull out on me and almost knocked me off, when I rocked up to his window at the next set of lights he apologised and said he was in the wrong and hadn't looked. No more than I should expect but had been half ready to expect a slanging match from him.

 

[sidevalve]

There are good and bad taxi drivers as there are good and bad cyclists BUT the general standard of driving seems to be falling and so does the standard of taxi driver. What would be expected 40 years ago [or even 20 years ago] is irrelevant now. As with HGV drivers, many of which come from abroad with [sorry but it's true] "iffy"
credentials then so with the taxi driver, many of them just out to make as much as they can as fast as they can and stuff anyone else.

 

[taximan]

There are good and bad taxi drivers as there are good and bad cyclists BUT the general standard of driving seems to be falling and so does the standard of taxi driver. What would be expected 40 years ago [or even 20 years ago] is irrelevant now. As with HGV drivers, many of which come from abroad with [sorry but it's true] "iffy"
credentials then so with the taxi driver, many of them just out to make as much as they can as fast as they can and stuff anyone else.

I agree with some of what you say and I am not able to comment on HGV drivers, but regarding taxi drivers, If you had any idea what is involved in getting a Hackney drivers licence you would know how difficult it is. Police check & Knowledge are just starters. I held licences for 3 different authorities and non of them were easy to come by. I agree there are some undesirables out there but come on give the rest of us some respect

 

[Little yellow Brompton]

I am a retired Taxi driver with 40 years of driving behind me. Can I state that while I agree with you that SOME cabbies treat the roads as their own personal race track, the vast majority are professional and considerate drivers. There are good drivers and bad drivers and in my opinion the good drivers far outnumber the bad.

The vast majority are NOT " professional and considerate drivers" as is shown by both their accident rates and the insurance premiums that they pay. At one time my ex-wife worked in an inurance brokers between 3 taxi offices, the vast majority of their workload was dealing with claims generated by the taxi driver clients, that and listening to the drivers whinge about how their premiums were so much higher becuase they were more likely to have accidents becuase of the miles they drove. Statistics along with TSD being another black art they didn't understand.