London Banter - View Single Post

[email protected] · February 6th 17, 08:31 AM posted to uk.transport.london

On Fri, 3 Feb 2017 11:10:58 +0000
Neil Williams wrote:
On 2017-02-03 09:34:00 +0000, d said:

Given that its the interests of car manufacturers who actually have some
decent competition (unlike LTI) to make cars that people want to buy, I think
the style of modern cars tells you all you need to know. So while not
everyone
shares my idea of style (fiat multipla still sold) I think I'm probably in
the
majority and I very much doubt the majority of cabbies are happy paying a
small
fortune for such a pig ugly vehicle.

I think the "small fortune" is in some ways the issue. Really, the
Chevrolet Matiz (or an electric version thereof) would be ideal for
taxi use in the city carrying one passenger, as most of them do. In
India, that kind of thing is increasingly the norm.

You have to work out how to provide for wheelchair users, but having
every single taxi driving around the place sized like a small minibus
belching out diesel fumes on the off-chance of a wheelchair user
wanting it seems to me to be a ludicrous idea when we have the kind of
modern technology which could summon an accessible vehicle very easily
from a rather smaller pool sized to ensure availability of such
vehicles for the likely number of wheelchair users only.

I tend to agree. There could be some incentive for having a wheelchair friendly
taxi - being allowed to work longer hours or tax breaks perhaps - but forcing
all cabbies to drive around in these overpriced mechanical antiques seems
ridiculous.

Normal cars serve perfectly well as minicabs, there's no reason they couldn't
do the same as black cabs. And the whole turning circle thing its an anachronism
since on a lot of londons roads its a dangerous (or illegal) manouveur to make
anyway plus most normal cars could manage it too in all but the narrowest of
streets.

--
Spud