On 2015-10-04 17:54:35 +0000, Roland Perry said:

Yes, and thousands of them are "moved on". Better for them not to be
causing the anti-social menace in the first place.

How do you propose to stop them? Even with the 5 minute "delay" they
will still no doubt wait in places where they are near to a likely job.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-04 16:14:58 +0000, Eric said:

Of course, but you did seem to present Google Maps as a better answer.

It's an acceptable answer, I'd say.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-04 16:58:23 +0000, JNugent said:

There is no such thing as a mini cab.

"Minicab" is a common London term for a private-hire car (that isn't a
premium one).

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-04 17:02:41 +0000, JNugent said:

Vagueness could lead to the passenger being (unnecessarily) in harm's way.

Nothing vague about you booking two completely distinct services, one
being a shared car and one being a private car. No different to the
way you can, with most private hire operators, choose the size and
"quality" of the car used.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-04 17:04:17 +0000, JNugent said:

A public transport operator is free to apply for the necessary
permissions to make that work.

Actually they aren't; there is (and I did some research on this in
conjunction with a friend in the transport industry) seemingly no legal
framework under which such a thing can operate. It fails on bus
legislation (no fixed route/restricted area of service), and on taxi
legislation (shared use at separate fares).

It's just that the passenger decides on the sharing, not the driver or
operator.

The passenger would still decide on it, they just would get the option
to say "find me some people to share with to keep my journey cost down"
to the operator, rather than them having to arrange the share
themselves.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

On 2015-10-04 17:05:06 +0000, JNugent said:

Is that a reason to introduce the same dangers to travelling in a taxi?

If the passenger wishes to take that (low) risk to reduce their fare,
why not? Provided it is at the passenger's option (and only their
option) whether it occurs or not.

Neil
--
Neil Williams
Put my first name before the @ to reply.

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On 2015-10-03 12:14:41 +0000, Roland Perry said:

That's no help if all I know is the name of a place, and can't
locate it on a map. If in a strange City it can be very difficult
to correlate random destinations with "points on a map".

You've used Google Maps' search facility before, I'm assuming?

It has a rather hazy idea where I live though I think this is because it
finds what it thinks is the middle of every postcode block even if some way
away. It also doesn't keep up with PAF changes because it finds an old name
for my house that was removed from the PAF in 2013.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On 2015-10-04 10:20:19 +0000, Roland Perry said:

It's not necessarily important for every private hire vehicle to
offer disability access, because the are pre-booked. As long as
each firm has some minimum number of such vehicles available if
requested, that should be sufficient.

Indeed. The principle should be that the accessible vehicles are
available on the same terms as the non-accessible ones (e.g. they are
kept available for such bookings such that the bookings are satisfied
within the same sort of time period as for a non-accesible vehicle)
not that every vehicle has to be accessible.

Bear in mind that "accessible" isn't a simple binary. My late mother
couldn't use black cabs late in her life because she couldn't make the step
up to climb in. She could use conventional saloons though. So some cabs are
not accessible to wheelchairs but are accessible to some old people. That is
why the Cambridge Hackney carriage fleet continues to have both types of
vehicle licensed.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In article ,
(Neil Williams) wrote:

On 2015-10-04 09:36:06 +0000, tim..... said:

And one issue here is the problem of disability access. If all
"ply for hire" cabs have to conform with the disability act and
provide equal access, then all "contract hire" cabs should as well.
This is one area where Uber is deficient that he should be MADE to
comply with.

I still don't agree with this - it causes larger, more polluting
vehicles to be driven around with one person and a small bag in them
much of the time. There must be a better, more effective way of
providing roughly the same level of service to those requiring it
without having *all* cars, whether plying for hire or pre-bookable,
needing to be wasteful massive behemoths when a Daewoo Matiz, Suzuki
Wagon etc would be perfectly adequate.

Actually, having said that, I noticed on a few recent trips to
Bracknell that their hackney carriage fleet consists largely of
Citroen Berlingos, Renault Kangoos, Fiat Doblos etc - cars derived
from small light vans which are wheelchair accessible while remaining
of a manageable size. Perhaps those would make more sense than the
massive behemoths?

Especially as there are some people to whom black cabs are NOT accessible.

--
Colin Rosenstiel

In message , at 19:28:16 on Sun, 4 Oct
2015, Bryan Morris remarked:
The last place I needed to find on Google Maps was a charity-run care
home, and that's completely missing too (it was built in 2005).

I once needed to check on Google Maps how to get from my place
(London/Essex borders) to London Bridge

Much to my surprise (I kid you not) the route was

Drive to Dover
Swim the English Channel to France
Swim the Atlantic to New York
Drive from New York to Lake Havasu City Arizona
London Bridge (the old one rebuilt there)

I assume some programmer at Google had a sense of humour.

There was a time when one of the mapping systems (I don't remember if it
was a web-based one or CD-based) sent people from south England to
Newcastle via France, and various other countries, ending up with a
ferry back from Scandinavia (Bergen probably).

Early versions one rail planner would send you to a small town in
Belgium if you typed in "Waterloo".
--
Roland Perry