Neil Williams wrote:
On Feb 22, 2:05 am, Mizter T wrote:

Additionally many minicabs will also have a more obvious TfL "Private
Hire" roundel (grey with blue bar) on display too, which allows them
to pick up and set down passengers on red routes - this is shown in
diagrammatic form on this TfL webpage (can't immediately find a photo
on the web):

I wondered what those were for - thanks.

Though I don't understand why anyone - taxi, private hire, car, lorry
or anything, should be stopping on a Red Route other than in a
designated parking bay, as that negates the whole point of *having* a
Red Route in the first place.

And yet London's traffic basically works, on the whole. Junctions tend to be
the pinch points.

Taxis need to be hailable on red routes - without that, London would become,
in tourists' eyes, the only city in the world where the taxis would always
sail past and never pick you up. The huge number of one-way roads and banned
turns mean that a taxi pulling around a corner from a red route to pick
someone up might be putting the fare up by a fiver - it would significantly
reducing the capacity of the fleet to carry people home at busy times. Taxis
setting down on red routes is harder to justify.

Since minicabs are only supposed to perform pre-booked journeys, I see
little justification for allowing them to pick up on red routes, because
finding the right person, checking they are the right person and
reprogramming the satnav takes so much longer than someone hailing a taxi,
saying where they are going and zooming away.

--
We are the Strasbourg. Referendum is futile.