Taxi drivers

What is it with taxi drivers? I was cycling to work this morning on the
left side of a long, road-like car park, and a taxi (Skyline, Milton
Keynes) was coming the other way, on the other side of the "road". All
of a sudden he's veering all the way over to my side, grinning at me,
forcing me right up against the parked cars.
I'm not used to this sort of behaviour, so I panicked, yanked my right
foot out of my pedal and slammed on my brakes because I was coming up to
a junction (another car was going across the junction in front of me, he
had right of way).
Does anybody has any advice (not involving breaking the law) on how to
deal with such vindictive drivers?

-Chris

Chris Wheeler wrote:
What is it with taxi drivers?

The same as with pretty much every other class of road user: some are
exemplary drivers and some are exemplary *******.

Does anybody has any advice (not involving breaking the law) on how to
deal with such vindictive drivers?

Dangerous driving is breaking the law.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

"Peter Clinch" wrote in message
...
Chris Wheeler wrote:
What is it with taxi drivers?

The same as with pretty much every other class of road user: some are
exemplary drivers and some are exemplary *******.


Indeed. I've had some remarkably courteous driving shown to me by local taxi
driver back in Jan 04, so I wrote a thank you letter to the taxi operator,
on the hope that the taxi driver in question got a brownie point :-)

Cheers, helen s

wafflycat wrote:

I've had some remarkably courteous driving shown to me by
local taxi driver back in Jan 04, so I wrote a thank you letter to
the taxi operator,

If you've got that much free time, I've got a bedroom which needs painting
and a winter hack waiting for its springtime spruce-up!

;-)

Chris Wheeler wrote:

Does anybody has any advice (not involving breaking the law) on how to
deal with such vindictive drivers?

Well, my advice would involve a hammer, a rusty nail and a blunt chisel; but
I'm not sure it would be (entirely) legal.

Chris Wheeler wrote:
What is it with taxi drivers? I was cycling to work this morning on the
left side of a long, road-like car park, and a taxi (Skyline, Milton
Keynes) was coming the other way, on the other side of the "road". All
of a sudden he's veering all the way over to my side, grinning at me,
forcing me right up against the parked cars.
I'm not used to this sort of behaviour, so I panicked, yanked my right
foot out of my pedal and slammed on my brakes because I was coming up to
a junction (another car was going across the junction in front of me, he
had right of way).
Does anybody has any advice (not involving breaking the law) on how to
deal with such vindictive drivers?

Take his registration and taxi license number.

If there are any witnesses, stop and ask for their contact details.

Take a deep breath, chill out for a moment, and burn off the adrenaline
with some hefty (but safe) sprinting. That always helps calm me down.

Write to the police and the local taxi licensing authority with details.
If there are no witnesses, a prosecution is unlikely; but when I had
some local chav slap me across the back from an overtaking car, the
police went round to both the driver's home and workplace to talk to
him; he denied knowledge of the incident and "forgot" who his passenger
was that day, but the police told me that he was embarrassed as hell.
The taxi licensing authorities may also take a dim view of repeated
reported transgressions by drivers.

Next time there's a nice cycling day, get out for a brisk ride and enjoy
yourself.

R.

Thanks for your replies. If it happens again, I will certainly try to
get the registration number.
I've been cut up by cars numerous times (I'm sure I'm not the only one).
A disproportionate number of times it has been by taxi drivers. Most of
the time though I think they're underestimating my speed, or they're
just incredibly unobservant. This time the bloke deliberately tried to
force me off my bike. I was too surprised and angry to think straight.

The reason I specified "not involving breaking the law" is that
everything I thought of afterwards is probably illegal. I wonder if
there's such a thing as steel toe capped spuds...

-Chris

Chris Wheeler wrote:

I've been cut up by cars numerous times (I'm sure I'm not the
only one).

I can assure you you're not.

The reason I specified "not involving breaking the law" is that
everything I thought of afterwards is probably illegal. I wonder
if there's such a thing as steel toe capped spuds...

The legal route would be more satisfying if you could make it work. If
the driver is prosecuted he will at the very least have several weeks
of anxiety to cope with, and may even begin to think that using his
taxi to intimidate vulnerable road users may not be such a good idea
after all.

The fantasies about what you'd like to do are part of the psychological
baggage of the incident. Why should you let this moron affect you like
this? He forgot all about it after 2 minutes. You're a cyclist; you
coped well with an emergency that was not of your making; there's
nothing further you can do this time; let it go.

--
Dave...


--
Dave...

Chris Wheeler wrote:
What is it with taxi drivers?

What a swine, Chris. I've had that or similar happen to me, my
sympathy for your feelings. Get his number? I'd report the incident
to police and the taxi company.

LSMike wrote:
Chris Wheeler wrote:
What is it with taxi drivers?

What a swine, Chris. I've had that or similar happen to me, my
sympathy for your feelings. Get his number? I'd report the incident
to police and the taxi company.

OTOH, the taxi driver I met yesterday was a wonderful contrast. He was
friendly and chuffed to see me cycling with a trailer, and was
flabbergasted when I waved him in front of me (mega queue at the
roadworks). We had a great couple minutes conversation, he told me he
used to be a pro cyclist when he was younger. They're not all bad, and
I can understand their frustration with cyclists. It still doesn't
excuse the terrible behaviour of the driver in Chris's taxi experience.