Taxi Driver Online

Not really sure why I bothered with this, with hindsight - there's absolutely zero input from the trade.

But the problems for the HC drivers should be obvious. I doubt the cycle lane per se is really an issue (and I doubt it will be used much...), but the road has been narrowed substantially, so the drivers using the rank will feel a tad less comfortable than previously, I'd guess, both in terms of closer passing traffic, and both drivers and passengers getting in and out of the vehicle, and the odd passing cyclist on the other side

Apart from that, the input from the county council, the cycling lobby and comments on the website are all eminently predictable.


Colchester cycle lane would cause 'nightmare' for taxi rank



The Head Street cycle lane opened last Friday after seven months of works and allows cyclists to travel in both directions to and from Headgate and North Hill.

Works on the crossing junction with Culver Street West, which had been due for completion the same day, were delayed because of emergency repairs made to mend a gas leak.

Although completion of the 212-metre-long lane has been welcomed by campaigners, some residents have raised worries about crossing the lane to use the taxi rank.

Head Street has been narrowed by about 3.5 metres to accommodate the cycle lane, but the taxi rank on the right-hand-side of the street remains in place.

Philip and Patricia Davies were asked their views and said the new lane may cause issues for cab drivers.

Mrs Davies, 76, said: "With the taxi rank, people have to step on to the road to get in the car.

“Getting out of a taxi here would be an absolute nightmare.

She added: "And the question with the cycle lane is: how many cyclists are we going to see use it?”

Mr Davies, 77, said he would also be interested to see how often the cycle lane is used.

He said: “It would be good in a month’s time to see if someone can stand there with a clicker and measure out what the demand for the cycle lane is.”

He was not totally against cycle infrastructure, however, and praised Cambridge’s adoption of cycle lanes.

“We are not a city for cyclists - Cambridge, they love it, but not here.

“It would be great if the High Street could be totally closed off to traffic, but the way the city is set out, it would be difficult.”

Mrs Davies added: “Why have they done it when they should be looking at the pavements?

"They need attention because they’re terrible.”

New lane 'provides riders of all ages and abilities the protection to travel confidently'



An Essex County Council spokesman said they have been encouraged by the initial take-up of the cycle lane, adding the £137,000 it cost to construct it won’t detract from road funding.

He said: “A big reason some people choose not to cycle is concerns for their safety on the road.
“This cycle facility provides riders of all ages and abilities the protection they need to travel safely and confidently.

“Like any new facility, it takes time for people to adopt it.

“However, we are pleased that we’ve already seen a number of people making use of the cycle lane.

“It is part of our long-term aim to make the transport network safer, greener and healthier, with around 40 per cent of all journeys under 5km in Colchester currently taking place in cars.”

The spokesman added it will allow for freer movement of traffic between Head Street, North Hill, and the High Street.

He continued: “The cycle facility offers greater choices for travel, helping relieve the pinch-point on Head Street and boosting green transport.

“With all active travel funding ringfenced by central government, the project also does not detract from highway maintenance and the funding could not have been used for fixing potholes.”

A spokesman for Colchester Cycling Campaign added: "Few people get out of taxis at ranks – they act more as a layby while cabs wait for a fare.

"Don’t the people complaining ever cross ordinary roads that have 30mph motor traffic? I bet they do.

"Here, they will be up against cyclists, most of whom will be doing 12mph at most and watching out for errant pedestrians as they go.

"Like everywhere on our highways network, care is needed by all users."

Well, that's a relief

I wonder how they both managed previously?


Well done for working out how a taxi rank works - but, of course, strictly speaking people shouldn't really be getting out of taxis at a rank at all, but I'm sure it does happen.

On the other hand, this demonstrates that the cycling lobby doesn't have much of a clue - they seem to acknowledge that there are issues with exiting the taxis, so surely that also means that there will be problems entering the taxis?

And, of course, these poles in the cycle lane/rank border are also a potential hazard with regard to opening doors etc

Reminds me of when they redesigned our station rank, and suddenly there were lots of people and cyclists etc close to the rank, and the vertical stansions holding the perspex shelter up would be hit by the taxi doors if you stopped in the wrong place, so you had to watch precisely where you stopped on the rank, which could in turn mean cars taking up more precious rank space than necessary

Similar issues when they redesigned our bus station rank as well, but at least it's still there - the original plan designed it out altogether, with no replacement, even though it was the main daytime rank in town at that time - there are only two daytime ranks in the town

This is our station rank here, and you can see from the stansion on the right of the image how close they are to the cars when opening doors etc. That's maybe one reason the car at the front is a wee bit back from the front of the rank

Another reason why the front car doesn't go right to the top is because that's where the buses swing by to get to the bus stop on the circle, and there isn't actually enough room for them to square up at the bus stop without the nose of the bus encroaching onto the rank area. So even sitting where the front car is is always a tad worrying because of how close the buses swing. When it's quieter the cars sit further back still (there are normally more cars than in the photo, although this tends to dwindle later in the evening in particular) which is also because of another issue - the station exit is mid-rank, and the students in particular will try to get into the nearest car when the come down the stairs

It's not so bad these days, and drivers normally pass the run up to the front car, but when the new design was first implemented a car would sometimes arrive and get a fare almost immediately from mid-rank, while the driver at the front could well have waited a couple of hours

Lots of other issues, but mabye better not to overanalyse

Which is maybe fair enough regarding readers on here, but when the people who are paid big salaries to design these things and enforce the rules etc, but aren't really interested...

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.3758587 ... ?entry=ttu

This is from the same angle, but from the bus stop area - it gives an idea of how the bus drivers can't actually complete the turn without encroaching onto the rank area and/or ending up sitting at an angle to the pavement at the bus stop...

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.3758587 ... ?entry=ttu

a bus stop in the middle of a desolate car park is that really the best they could come up with for the station serving such a major tourist area ?

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Edders, the Streetviews were taken in September 2020, so still in lockdown effectively, and the commuters and the like who use the car park to go to Edinburgh would still be WFH, mostly.

The first link below is towards the old car park. It was actually full every day until about ten years ago, and the excess cars used to snake back from the end of the taxi rank, and because of the lack of rank space, the two would often come into conflict...

They eventually built a second car park, which can be seen in the second link.

So compared to when I started using the rank in the late 1990s, there's an excess of car parking space, and an excess of bus capacity because of the public subsidy lavished on them (I call them the Potemkin buses ) and an excess of taxis. The latter due to various reasons, one being the excess bus capacity mopping up the limited demand for buses and taxis, another probably being our higher fare structure compared to back in the day, and other, er, labour market factors

St Andrews is five miles away, and as has been discussed on here before, the rail link to town went with the Beeching cuts in the 1960s. And one local councillor has made it her life's work to reinstate the rail link to town (or, ideally, divert the trains - which are coming up the main East Coast line from King's Cross to Edinburgh on to Aberdeen - via St Andrews).

Which would, as I've said, effectively close the taxi rank. And said councillor was a licensing councillor for years, and also on the committee responsible for the roads and taxi ranks etc. Conflict of interest, much?

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.3758587 ... ?entry=ttu

https://www.google.com/maps/@56.3758587 ... ?entry=ttu

My comment was more about the architecture being bereft of any merit

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Absolute stupidity of the highest order.

People will get hit when trying to get into cabs there, even the numpty cyclist-loving civil servants should be able to work that bugger out.

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The Rank is on the wrong side of the road,how much consultation with the trade took place before the cycle lane installation.

Well spotted, Heathcote - I didn't really think of that

But I should have, because it reminds me of when the council here tried to relocate our main chaotic night time rank - the two proposals would have made things a whole lot worse. And one of the proposals would have meant the taxis queuing *against* the traffic, which was self-evidently problematic. In fact, it was directly opposite the stretch of road where the rank had been previously, and that was then relocated when it became over-congested, and people were complaining about U-turns etc. So the council's idea was to replicate the U-turns, but on the other side of the road and *against* the flow of traffic?

Anyway, I sent 1,000 words or so towards their consultation, and it didn't go ahead. Ditto the other proposal, and we're still in the same place, maybe ten years later

(I don't normally get involved with stuff like that, but at that time and with *that* proposal it seemed more of like an emergency... )

But, as you allude (I think), there's often not much in the way of consultation about stuff like this, and the need for cycle lanes, LTNs etc tramples over everything else. They got their bit between their teeth during lockdown, and haven't really let up.

Can't really see much chance of things changing course, in the short-run at least - in Glasgow alone it's just been announced that 4,000 more streets will become 20mph zones, and that's the way the whole of Scotland looks like it's going - we'll end up like Wales, only imposed locally rather than from Holyrood