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news
Alfred Street protected bike lane, BelfastBelfast cyclists fear danger as 4,000 more cabs allowed in bus lanes
Cyclists in Belfast say they will be put in unnecessary danger if 4,000 more taxis are allowed to use the city’s bus lanes.
But a local taxi firm has hit back, saying that the "antagonistic attitude” of some cyclists was the real problem.
As part of a 12-week trial staring on Monday, 4,000 more cabs will be able to use the restricted lanes, already open to cyclists, buses, motorbikes and some types of cab.
Fonacab boss William McCausland told the Belfast Telegraph that some of his drivers had read comments online where cyclists said they would deliberately ride slowly and in the middle of the bus lane.
"All of our drivers are competent and able to negotiate around a cyclist with no issue," he said.
"We recently sent a memo around our drivers to remind them to be mindful of cyclists - but sometimes the cyclists need to be more careful too; this aggression doesn't help anyone.
"At the moment our wheelchair accessible taxis can already use the bus lanes regardless of whether someone with a wheelchair is even in the taxi. It's ludicrous - nobody can justify it.
"You could get one of our Class B taxis drop you off to work one day and it could cost £4.80. The next day you could get a Class A taxi, but because it can't use the lane, you could be sitting in traffic and find the same journey will cost you £6.
"In the city centre lanes it will help our customers. If you're at the Europa and you've got a customer to pick up at City Hall it will make a big difference not sitting in traffic. To a customer, waiting every 20 seconds feels like 20 minutes."
A spokeswoman for cycling body Sustrans said: "Cyclists are among the most vulnerable road users.
“We believe this trial contradicts the Government's own strategy to promote sustainable transport and active travel as it will hinder people to have the freedom and confidence to travel by bicycle for everyday journeys."
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10 comments
I wish, when cycling, that I didn't care what gets to use a bus lane- buses and bikes make for a poor mix, even as a fast and experienced cyclist having a bus behind me always feel deeply threatening. Give me a seperated, protected, lane any day. Leave the arguement over whether hacckney carriages and or minicabs should be allowed in bus lanes to the bus drivers, taxi drivers and private hire drivers, get us out of it.
Would be good if they could get the buses out of the bus lanes as the majority of bus drivers in belfast seem to have a game of one up on who can perfrom the closest pass on a cyclist.
Given the appalling safety record of the taxi trade, people riding bicycles are right to be worried.
"You could get one of our Class B taxis drop you off to work one day and it could cost £4.80. The next day you could get a Class A taxi, but because it can't use the lane, you could be sitting in traffic and find the same journey will cost you £6."
Ergo, ride a bike.
The taxi driver's time will soon be over. Thank god.
A lot of Reading's black cab drivers are not "competent" to "negotiate around cyclists". Unless that means risking the life, health and wellbeing of the vulnerable to get to the next set of traffic lights a few seconds earlier.
I'm sure we may shortly see some video evidence of dangerous use of a vehicle in these test "bus lanes".
Bus lanes are as wide as a bus, so do not provide enough space to perform a safe overtake of a cyclist by a black cab.
This.
I get cars tailgating me through a chicane near where I live, through which I ride in primary , and I'm just thinking "Why? Just because the lane is the width of a bike plus a car doesn't mean that it's actually safe to overtake there".
Clearly your "antagonistic attitude" is the real problem.
Why don't we just let all vehicles use the bus and cycle lanes, problem solved, right?
I've just come back from a weekend in Manchester, didn't see a cycle lane that wasn't full of parked cars.
Or a safe overtake by a bus. This one time
(at band camp)I got shouted at by a bus driver for riding too far out from the kerb, in a single lane bus lane. WTF did he expect me to ride? It made no difference where in the lane I was riding: he would still have to go out into the 'general traffic lane' to overtake me.It bugs the hell out of me that taxis are allowed to use bus /cycle lanes. The whole point of these lanes is to reduce the number of cars going into towns for reasons of both congestion and pollution, and taxis do neither. in fact they are often old smelly vehicles with a single passenger that sit around the town all day and do two journeys for every one that a private car would. I'd rather see car share lanes than taxis in bus lanes.