Are Addison Lee on a Downward Cycle?

Addison Lee were the rising stars of the London Minicab market, the largest in town. They have thousands of cars on the road, and they brand most of them, so they are visible.

It all kicked off a few days ago when their outspoken chairman decided that he could change the law, and told his drivers to drive in bus lanes and he would pay any fines (read more here http://www.bikebiz.com/news/read/new-threat-to-london-cyclists-as-minicabs-told-to-invade-bus-lanes/012893 or many other places). The subtext to this is that he wants to make as much money as he can during the Olympics, and probably thought he could get away with it. However, he misjudged and found himself at the center of a backlash: A direct instruction from TfL not to contravene the law, and opened up the potential for TfL to revoke his license to operate. After all, someone who publicly advocates the breaking of the law can't be a fit person to run a company of this size and standing. In a rare moment, cyclists and cabbies found themselves with common ground to oppose this move.

It then transpired that he had also written an article in his in house magazine, read by customers and people in his cabs which effectively said "It's the cyclists own fault if they have an accident, don't blame yourself if you run into one, it is inevitable" Loads of other crap too (http://cyclelondoncity.blogspot.co.uk/2012/04/if-addisonlee-wasnt-worrying-you-before.html for more).

As a result there was a "Die In" organised in front of Addison Lee's offices, which I went along to. A wonderfully diverse range of cyclist numbering about 300 turned up despite the poor weather and "died" in front of him. To be fair to John Griffin he did face the crowd - and then mostly spouted the same old crap. His valid point is that training would be good for all cyclists. That is wrapped up in a wrapper of so many misconceptions and ill conceived notions that it is barely discernible. Plus, while he is welcome to an opinion on this or any other matter the only thing he has CONTROL over to any extent is the behaviour of his drivers. He could doubtless make a real contribution to cycle safety if he trained his drivers to behave better and then put measures in place to make sure they did.

So where do I stand on the whole issue? Actually, I can't get as wound up as many do. John Griffin is just another ignorant motorist who fails to understand the value of the cycle on London streets: if more people used cars (as he seems to advocate London would grind to a halt. He does happen to be in charge of a substantial cab operation, though, and as such it is entirely inappropriate for him to voice these inflammatory views where they can influence the attitudes of those drivers negatively and potentially result in injury or even death. Addison Lee in my view are no worse than any other mini cab drivers, probably better than the majority of outer London ones, but they do have the misfortune of having the brand emblazoned on their cars. If John Griffin wants to build the value of his brand, then he needs to grasp the nettle of that branding and make sure his drivers are better than others - ambassadors for his company. You don't do that by breaking the law or barging cyclists off the road.

I can't see their license being revoked, and given the distress it would cause to thousands of the drivers who have done little more wrong than any other and the undoubted need for the service I am not certain that it would be valuable, however appealing the image of the schadenfreude is.

I'll share the road with anyone, I have as much right to it as any car. All I ask is that drivers do their bit and try to avoid me.

This photo courtesy of David Firn, set here I'm not in any, other photos in which I also appear here, I'm easy to recognise as I am the only one is short sleeves and shorts.

A Day Out With Rantwick

A few weeks ago, I was the fortunate winner of a competition on RANTWICK, beating off heavy competition on the way. The prize was valuable, but the last thing I expected was for the Rantwick himself to deliver the prize in person. Having now had the pleasant experience of getting to know him better, it is conceivable that in a moment of less than sobriety, he settled down on a bus or train with "London" on the front, and missed his stop. But I am getting ahead of myself.

After he had gone to all that trouble and travel (deliberate or accidental) the very least I could do was to invite him to partake of some ale at my local hostelry. The venture started promisingly enough, at the bar he got his money out

but I told him his money was no good here. What he though a 10 Yuan note would do I can't honestly say, but the gesture was appreciated.
So, we settled down with our pints. It became obvious that even before drinking, coordination was not Rantwick's strongest suit, as he spilled his drink a bit very early on.

As you can see, he did offer to buy the next round, so I quickly forgave him. But, after very little ale, he appeared to get a bit shaky.

Maybe it was jet lag? I don't know. The quality of his conversation and company didn't change which, after all, is the mark of good drinking company. He even told me this joke: A duck goes into a pub at lunchtime, walks up to the bar and orders a pint and a butty. the barman thinks it's a bit odd, a talking duck that drinks beer, but serves him anyway. This goes on everyday for 3 weeks, and a travelling circus comes into town. when the duck comes in for his pint and sandwich the barman says to him: "You know there is a travelling circus in town, they might have a job for you". The duck says "What would a travelling circus want with a carpenter?".
I did start to get concerned, though.

By the time we got through the first pint he was certainly worse for wear.

When it was plain there was nothing left in the glasses, we decided to call it a day

amd a good one was had by all.
Cheers, Rantwick!.

Democracy in Action

The strapline of this blog is “Cycling, London & Life” and to date, cycling has predominated so far, but I’d like to do a bit of the “Life” stuff today.

Over on my main blog I posted a picture of the self-styled “Democracy Village” (like this) and said that I was please that our elected officials were taking it away. A frequent habitué of London Daily Photo, Imajoebob, took the time to leave a long comment, the rest of this post is my response, which visitors here may not be interested in so…

I'm a packhorse, sometimes. A review of my panniers.

From Panniers and Such

Regrettably I often have to cart my laptop and all manner of other things around on my cycling perambulations. To do that, I use two Altura panniers with which I am pretty happy. But as is the way, I'm always interested to hear what the options are.

Photos with review comments are here http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/londondailyphoto/PanniersAndSuch

The first is the Altura Urban Dryline. That is about 3 years old, and it has ceased being dry for the last 18 months or so. Sure, it keeps light rain off (what wouldn't?) but in a downpour it will get wet from the bottom up. May not help that I don't use mudguards, but the chief cause is the abrasive London dirt. The only ones that might be more waterproof are the Ortlieb, and at twice the price I can't see that being value , unless they can do more than 3 years. From what I've heard and seen, that would be a lot even for them. So, I carry plastic bags into which things get stuffed if they need to.

The other is the Altura laptop bag. My one doesn't have a "dryline" (huzzah!) instead, it has a plastic cover which makes the whole thing waterproof. The storage facilities (pockets) on it are brilliant, especially the outside pocket. Why do so few bags have them? I suppose its because they would affect the waterproofing.

Given the life they have (the rack can attest to that), I am very impressed with the way they have held out.

In short I would definitely buy both again.

Whoops, I did it again

 

Last time I said I didn't mind if I didn't repeat my 100k-in-a-day commute, but I did.

As it happens, yesterday was a beautiful day, and even though I was lugging at least 15kg in my panniers and had done 80Km the day before, it put a real smile on my face. What's more, there was even a (light) westerly to ease my way home. That trip by car or public transport would have been a real drag.

It is funny how relative distance is. This time, now I knew where I was going, seemed much quicker than last. Also the half of the journey that I am most familiar with seems to go a lot quicker than the westerly half, even though it contains the cross town ride. The halfway point is out by Shepherds Bush/Hammersmith, when I hit there it feels like I'm almost home. Whereas, plugging along the Uxbridge Road, the A4 or whatever seems to carry on forever.

I've Got a Bell and I'm Gonna Use It

 

But will it make any difference? My bell, as you can see, is industrial strength and can be heard. In fact, I can produce a veritable symphony of sound from it, from a subdued "ting ting" through a police-y siren type of ring to a full blown tram noise. I always try to select the appropriate noise, for example a quiet, alerting sound on a shared use path, but it rarely does any good.

This last week commute has sen the full gamut. The I'm-walking-towards-you-on-a-bike-path-and-I-can-see-and-hear-you-but-I-will-do-nothing (by Uxbridge Road, Hillingdon). Through the we-are-walking-across-the-bike-path-but-we-are-foreigners-and-so-when-we-eventually-realise-one-of-us-will-jump-forward-one-back-one-will-stand-stock-still (Hyde Park) to the I'm-cycling-on-a-bike-path-that-I-know-has-a-blind-bend-and-I-can-hear-your-bell-but-I-won't-ring-mine-becasue-that-would-spoil-the-surprise (Hayes Bypass). There were more, but all just variations on a theme.

I have to say that it just amuses me these days and I take it all in my stride, but with it all why do we bother?

Today I Try to Educate a brace of Numbnuts

The first was going through the City. There’s one point where one side of the road is taken over by long term building works for an office block, forcing two way traffic onto the other side. Not very wide, and traffic had ground to a halt as a site vehicle, a pallet truck made its way along. I was stopped behind a bus and it was moving towards me, signalling to turn right to enter the works area.. The next car had stopped to let the lifter through. Numbnut 1 decides (too strong a word, I don’t think he decided anything) to carry on cycling even though the lifter was already turning in. He did notice when he had a rather close call, and he mouthed off abuse at the driver “you f-ing pr-ck”. So as traffic started to move, I cycled with him and told him, the lifter had been signalling, it was on obvious building site and hazard and in fact, he was the prick. As he had his iPod plugged into his brains, I don’t suppose he heard me as I stopped at a red light and watched him sail through two, blithely oblivious.

Numbnut 2 was later on the ride, by Acton. I’d been riding a lively pace with a messenger on single speed from Notting Hill, and we were stopped at traffic lights and road works. There was a dumper truck, in the middle of the road, angled about 45 degrees to the left and signalling left. I turned to my momentary companion and said “I think we’ll let him go first” and we both laughed. Then, Numbnut 2 sails up, from the outside, close down the side of the truck (ie, in the trucks blind spot) and proceeds to cycle round the nearside corner of the truck on the red light. Had the light changed 2 seconds earlier, he would have been roadkill. So when the truck had gone and I was passing him I just said “You really are a dork” Didn’t have time for any more, as I was still riding lively. I don’t suppose he really knew what I was talking about.

Just how DO some cyclists survive?