Now I’m not what you would call a lover of the taxi industry. Sometimes it really gets to me when I see a taxi drive down a bus lane and then, after the driver decides he does not want to go straight, suddenly starts to nudge himself in on top of the car he or she decides to pick out for the push to one side. Know what I mean, its their livelihood, so therefore you should pull back and cave in to their threats to take the right hand side off your car if you do not back off. Now, if you insist that your place is yours, then you are handed out a barrage of abuse and a series of hand signs that finds no place in the minds of those who use hand signs as a means of intelligent conversation.
It goes beyond all sense and reasoning how the taxi industry is allowed to conduct a business in complete contempt of the rules of the road. We have spoken for years about taxi’s stopping in the middle of the street to pick up a fare, stopping at bus stops to have a quick lunch break or hold time in bus lanes in wait for a punters. The city centre on Friday, Saturday and Sunday night is subjected to traffic jams at 12.00pm at night in the Dame St, Georges St and Westmoreland St because taxi’s stop wherever they feel suitable for them to pick up or drop customers. Fleet St is an access street only (buses and loading) but taxi’s cram into this street, clocking up unnecessary fares on their meters while they ignore the side road from Westmoreland St into D’Olier St where traffic can flow freely.
While you and I are crucified with road tax and the threat of fines for driving down a lane that at the best of time is empty, taxi’ are awarded low road tax and an unrestricted ability to move around the city without giving anything back for that privilege. The standard of taxi driving is appalling and nobody appears to give a damn about it. These people are licensed as drivers of public service vehicles, class themselves as professional drivers and break ever rule that make up the rules of the road. Because roof signs are displayed above their vehicles we can see on a continous daily basis, classical visual examples of how bad driving is manipulated to its extreme. It is time the taxi industry was brought into line with a standard in driving that is required from every other road user. We must not forget that taxi drivers hold no extra qualifications in driving that distinguishes them differently above any other driver on the road.
In other words they are no different than anybody else but are given exemptions to other road users, as a natural entitlement because they drive taxi’s. It is time the taxi industry was obliged to comply with all the rules of the road, and as part of their public service licence should be obliged to act as shining examples to the public of how competent, professional and defensive driving should be done by all on a daily basis. The photos above show how the taxi industry is ignoring the very basics of road courtesy as they park at bus stops or places where elderly people require access to services. We ask all shite-drivers members to use their mobile phone cameras and submit images of a disgrace that is allowed to happen in contravention of road safety regulations.
41 Comments
Rick O’Shea of RTÉ 2FM has these shots of a taxi on his blog.
well i was going to put this on how to loose your license but this is more fitting. here it goes short and sweet.
get a taxi license and do an hours work. theres your 12 points.
by the way jim you left out a few things
(1) taxi’s doing u-turns in dame street.
(2) bus drivers getting lamb basted by the guards for using fleet street.
(3) taxi’s using left and right turns only for going straight.
but who is going to listen to us. certainly not anyone that we give our vote to.
In Ennis Taxi drivers will stop quite happily in Abbey Street and Parnell Street and wait 10 minutes for their fare to arrive or finally get out after they finished a good chat.
Despite the fact that both streets are one way, too narrow to overtake and have Taxi ranks within 30 seconds to 1 minutes walk from them.
While the rest of us mugs sit there and wait in a growing traffic jam, but then we’re not as important as Taxi drivers of course, sure don’t they own the road…
Taxi’s also think that speed limits do not apply to them on many different occasions i have been passed by them in a 50K zone and them doing about 100!
Ah stop lads, i was on my way into town last night heading through Rathfarnham, there was a Taxi in the “left turn only” lane while i was in the lane to continue straight, the lights went green, i took off straight as did the Taxi driver forcing me to jam on as he cut in front of me. I flashed the lights at him & continued, he went into the bus lane which changes to another left turn only lane…same thing happened, i drove straight as did he, cutting me off again..I took his plate number & his reg plate number & reported him. I FECKIN HATE TAXI DRIVERS!!!!
i’m really getting sick and tired of these no bodies. last night i pulled in to let an ambulance pass by when lord and be hold a taxi comes tearing around on opposite side of road and tried to over take me, in which case i pulled out again and he had to jam on,
if any taxi drivers read these bullitins please cop on before you start murdering people. because anyone that knocks down someone the way you drive deserve to be tried as attempted murderers/ murderers.
every night it’s a rat race to see who get into the city centre quickest
next note.
is there any way of getting a petition up. every day ordinary people who drive for a living loose their license and yet these what evers dont. it’s about time they were treated like every other driver in this country and stared getting points for the way they drive.
Bad taxi drivers have good insurance and they haven’t got a leg to stand on because of the shite they pull, so jam on and cash in!
why are all the photo’s reversed? was looking at then for a while before realising what was bugging me, everyone driving on the wrong side of the road!
also the bars in the corner of the pictures make me think your driving a bus (while taking the pictures…)
The problem with the taxi industry is not road safety enforcement, the problem is with the the taxi drivers unions who argue the point that because of the nature of their business they are different from all other drivers on the road and therefore require exemptions in compliance with the rules of the road. As in the past, if the taxi drivers decided they are not contented with the rules that everybody else is compelled by law to uphold , they just go on strike and threaten to hold the country to ransom. We have all seen the ugly scenes of so called compliant, Garda vetted individuals taking the law into their own hands by singling out individual drivers who do not go with the flow and inflict their own justice of mob treatment. Driving instructors are now obliged to pass a series of tests and examinations before they are given a permit by the RSA to provide driving instruction. The RSA has clearly demonstrated that it can regulated and control the standards of professionalism required for those who wish to work within the driving instruction industry. The taxi industry is but a long overdue industry that requires immediate attention in order to bring the industry into line with the requirements of a modern society that demands professionalism and accountability from those who are licensed to operate as Public Service Vehicle operators.
Completely agree with this post. The hazard light stops really piss me off.
Taxi drivers are the most hated of all road users
You and your facts.
So, Jim Travers and “Melanie”, I guess as a result of your comments here, these people think it’s ok to stick a syringe into the neck of us, according to “Melaine”, no bodys! Safe Driving!
So, “Jim Travers”, Is there anything else you would like to discuss? Early Renaissance Painting perhaps? Or Marlon Brando movies? Or drunk drivers? Anything?
Taxi Driver
19 of your 21 comments from this morning have been temporarily placed in moderation pending review by the site owner.
They deal with statistics on road deaths, reports on crashes and safety issues for taxi drivers. None of these topics are under discussion in this post. The crux of the post is the suggestion that taxi drivers are discourteous and inconvenience other road users. You are welcome to refute this allegation. But by spamming this blog with reports of non-taxi drivers causing accidents and deaths does not achieve that.
In fact this website deals with poor driving. There are other sites out there covering the more serious aspect of death on our roads.
Just a note of referencing articles published elsewhere: For readability, if the piece is brief then feel free to paste it in in it’s entirety (remembering to quote the source – for copyright reasons). If it is long, then a short synopsis coupled with a link to the where the full article can be found is better.
Let me make it very clear that I am not singling you out as you are a taxi driver. You are more than welcome to add balance to the debate on this, and any article. I merely advising of the best way to go about it.
Those comments have been deleted as they are off-topic. This article does not discuss taxi drivers or anyone else causing crashes or deaths on the road,- it discusses them being arses and inconveniencing other people.
Also, if you post such an un-necessarily large volume of comments to the same topic, you can expect them to be trimmed down. As I’ve said before, this is a blog, not a discussion forum. There’s no need for quite so many comments from the one person on the one article to get your point across.
i dont agree with attacks on anybody who drives for a living. my comments are that our roads would be alot safer if taxi drivers stuck to the rules of the road like most drivers in this country.
everday there are thousands of near misses with taxi drivers breaking the law.
john smith.
unfortunately 99 times out of 100 the law would be against you if you rear end someone no matter what they do.
thats also one of my points to taxi drivers they can cut you up but if you rear end them your the one that would most likely loose out.
At the end of it all IF taxi drivers stuck to the law they would get alot more respect of other drivers including myself.
primal please feel free to delete next bit if it causes offence.
any web site with the exception of their own of course that deals with taxi drivers all have the same thing in common and that is they are.
SHITEDRIVERS.
im just after reading the hate taxi drivers crew there and i,d like to point out a few facts to them most taxi drivers on the roads are the most careful considerate people behind the wheel .my car is my living so for me to have an accident of any sort will mean no earnings .the next time the hate brigade get into that taxi smelling of the guinness fart and the kebab and trying to cop the quick feel off some slag they are trying to take home while the said slag squeals out a stupid laugh at the stupid jokes your making and you have one eye on the meter because its going to cost an extra 20 cent to go to a proper u turn .the guy behind the wheel is having to watch the road ahead but listen to the drunken waffle in the back seat .try it yourselves .yous are all very grateful to get that taxi home on a sat night alright but then come in here moaning about so called bad driving .if were all such bad drivers ,why take the chance in the first place stay at home
Rusty you forgot to say,The guy does not get his way with said Girl,Girl gets dropped off then guy gets on mobile to his Girlfriend tells her how much he loves her & he has been walking miles for a Taxi & has just got one ! how much he loves Girlfriend & is it cool to call over.
I am thinking of getting a camera in the car & everytime this happens sticking it up on you tube !
I haven’t seen such a blatant piece of overhype and propaganda since the search for WMD by Bush n Blair. As a driver educated and tested in the UK the problem you have here is that most of the “native” Irish License holders can’t drive to save their lives. You allowed the government to put onto the roads a myriad of “L” drivers that NEVER took the test, just happened to have a provisional license when the day came that the government decided to just let them have a full license ( even if they hadn’t even been behind the wheel of a car!! ). Even to this day they still let provisional “L” drivers behind the wheel unaccompanied and in cases without ever taking a lesson.
As for the taxi side of things you would do better to park your car and read the road signs, one of the commonest complaints seems to be of taxis arriving at a junction ( via a buslane ) and not turning left ( with the rest of the plebs ), thats probably because if you opened your eyes you would see that the bus lanes usualy continue on the other side of the junction and taxis are entitled to continue straight ahead, just like buses!! except FASTER
As for the rest of you “taxi driver haters” on here , do us ALL a favour, write to your TDs, Write to the Taxi Regulator, Ring up you local radio shows and tell them “STOP ISSUING LICENSES LIKE CONFETTI, THERE ARE TOO MANY INCOMPETANT TAXI DRIVERS COMING ON STREAM”
Howdy Boys
I know taxi drivers can be an irritant to alot of drivers,but some of the comments are a slight bit unfair. I see Jim has commented on the need for the taxi business to be brought into line with modern day requirments….and he’s right. Most taxi drivers will agree that since the setting up of the Commission for Taxi regulation alot of changes have been brought in….and alot still to come. The new Driver I.Ds,the display of License information,the dedicated complaints office,the standardisation of the National fare structure….and to come the, new vehicle standards,the skills enhancements course.
And also…bare in mind that these guys are “sole traders”….huge,dramatic changes in an industry like thiers has a cost implication. The majority of them wouldnt have the funds to see through all the new rules in one lump….doing so would probably drive alot of them out of the business,and probably force 000s onto the SW system…and we all know the hoo haa thats made everytime we hear about x number of jobs being lost here or there.
As far as how they treat the rules of the road…its all relative. Iv seen taxi drivers T-Boned on the new James Joyce bridge by a young lad breaking the lights…every day on my way home from work I see countless cars pulled in for driving in bus lanes…
Taxi drivers spend anything up to 12-13 hoyrs a day trying to deal with some of the worst traffic in Europe…and have to try and make a living from it…maybe you guys should give it a whirl before lambasting them.
Irish taxi drivers have a serious PR problem..and the unions are to blame!! To get support you need to endear yourself to the public,not piss them off from a height!! Why did the public not turn on the nurses during thier strike?? What they did was totally wrong….I sat in Temple street hospital one night,and the baby in the next room needed to be transfered to Crumlin that night…but when the porter came up to bring the baby down to the waiting ambulance the nurse on duty told him that the baby couldnt go till thew morning…that there was none to organise the babys paperwork..work to rule rules!! I was so shocked when I overheard this and my sympathies for the nurses vanished.
spook_ie you forgot the bit where there are exceptions to taxi’s using bus lanes. i believe around stephens green for leeson street if i’m correct is for buses and nothing else not even taxi’s or it’s around that general area and that taxi’s are only supposed to use bus lanes if they have a fare. i stand to be corrected ?
i posted an issue where as i seen passengers taking drugs in the back of my car and this was deleted WHY?and there you have james hayes posting about how taxi drivers dont have an iq and some are bank robbers now if the admins are to run a balanced forum here ,then why do some posts get deleted .the THE BALANCE SEEMS TO GO ALL ONE SIDE — and they call taxi drivers wingers
You can sit and be corrected as you are half right…..
Taxis are not supposed to use contraflow buslanes such as the one round “the green” or the ones on Leeson St, Earlsfort Terrace and Eden Quay which is why of a night (when the gards are bored having nothing to do ) you will sometimes see them dishing out tickets to miscreants.
Taxis may use buslanes when they are “plying” for hire not just when they are hired
What I can’t understand is how self employed sole traders can go on strike. Anyone any ideas? other than depriving themselves of money and providing an absolute filed day for Hackneys I don’t see the threat to us. Usually just results in better traffic flow since 90% of cars cruising to a halt and gridlocking the whole town for no reason are Taxi drivers.
posted an issue where as i seen passengers taking drugs in the back of my car and this was deleted WHY?and there you have james hayes posting about how taxi drivers dont have an iq and some are bank robbers now if the admins are to run a balanced forum here ,then why do some posts get deleted .the THE BALANCE SEEMS TO GO ALL ONE SIDE — and they call taxi drivers wingers
Rusty, it was me who deleted that and I may have been a bit hasty in doing so but on reading the comment, I thought it was a joke and that it was inappropriate. Sorry for removing it.
However, I’m sure you realise that this isn’t the best place site for discussing people taking drugs – it’s for discussing bad driving on the roads and I’d appreciate if it was kept (just) for that.
Cheers.
For Melanie and anyone else who may be misinformed regarding Taxi’s travelling in bus lanes. The current situation is governed by SI no. 182 of 1997. Taxi’s may use a bus lane “while in the course of business”. A Taxi may ply for hire by standing at an appointed stand ( Taxi Rank) or driving on a public road. So, plying for hire is “in the course of business”.
( b ) Sub-article (2) shall not apply to a taxi or a wheelchair accessible taxi which is being used in the course of business.
Quote John Smith: Usually just results in better traffic flow since 90% of cars cruising to a halt and gridlocking the whole town for no reason are Taxi drivers.
Irish Independent May 24 2007
Thursday May 24 2007
Last Thursday evening, gridlock gripped the south city at 5.30pm due to a small accident near Heuston station.
I sat, along with an international traffic planner, on Pembroke St. for 20 minutes. Nothing moved.
Even an ambulance was gridlocked.
The traffic planner sitting with me said that no matter what advice his company gave to the city council, it was overridden by political lobbying by vested interests, be they home owners wanting to park outside their house, or shopkeepers wanting doorstep deliveries at rush hour.
Freeflow for emergency or PSV vehicles does not exist in the greater Dublin area and that situation could mean that you might never make it alive to a mismanaged hospital in the first place.
It’s no wonder all Ministerial cars are fitted with blue strobe lights – for all the good it will do them.
So, Niall, This site deals with “Poor Driving”? Would you consider driving the wrong way, ie, against the flow of traffic, along a dual carrigeway or motorway while drunk, poor driving? If you say yes, then you have no business deleting my following post. I’m waiting on your answer.
Why is this post not deleted? Are you in favour of “Compo Culture” here on this website? Is this a post that could be sent to the Insurance Fraud Unit?
On September 17th, 2007 at 12:52 am
John Smith said:
Bad taxi drivers have good insurance and they haven’t got a leg to stand on because of the shite they pull, so jam on and cash in!
@Taxi Driver:-
Three points –
Firstly, I do sleep. I’m (usually) not online at 2.34am, nevermind 3.49am when you posted your last two comments.
Secondly, I actually don’t need you to tell me what comments should be deleted. Funny, that.
And thirdly – yes, OF COURSE I consider driving the wrong way on a dual carriageway or drunk to be SHITE driving – but it’s still got absolutely nothing to do with the topic of THIS article so it may be deleted for pulling the discussion off-topic. At least John Smith (who’s comments YOU’re picking on) is staying on topic here.
Some of whats printed in here is shite, when you have a retard telling people to jam on and then make a claim well thats rich! I have sent a copy of that quote to the insurers federation of ireland. However there are SOME shit Taxi drivers no doubt about that when you have 14,000 taxis floating around Dublin what do you expect?Plates are handed out to ANYONE, social welfare are paying for plates and getting insurance for non nationals to keep them off the welfare! There are just too many Taxis on the road! That may seem a crazy statement when you may try get one between 2am and 5am on Fri and Sat nights.
well niall the reason i posted the issue of people taking drugs in my car was to point out the fact that being just one of 14000 in dublin that these people are doing drugs and the next morning are probably getting into their cars and driving to work after say three hours sleep if they slept at all .you have in here a crowd of holier than thou who started this thread saying that taxi drivers are one of the worst people on the roads .granted there are some and in another forum the topic has been discussed ,but most taxis out there are professional in their attitude to the road and for the likes of some of the posters here to try and use them as a scapegoat when they should be discussing the drug /drink drivers out there .i think that the cry babies have been answered any way .so before they want to go on about any taxi driver stopping to let a passenger off they should think before they get into that car after the night out
just an after thought on the bad taxi drivers that are out there .did yous know that i can pass my driving test today and within the next six months be driving a taxi .TRUE and whos to blame for this ? how could anyone fresh from the driving test be compentent enough to ferry the public . so maybe this is where the shite is coming from with the bad taxi drivers issue .there are little or no restrictions on putting a taxi on the road in ireland and the full time professional drivers out there are turning blue in the face trying to point this out .we probably spend more time than anyone here on the road and see alot more .we have as i said discussed bad taxi drivers ,but to tar us all as bad drivers is just horses#ite
All this talk about Taxi drivers being shite drivers makes me laugh. How many Taxi drivers have died on our roads this year? How many members of the public have died in a traffic accident involving a taxi this year? Of the thousands of taxis & hackneys covering hundreds of thousands of runs around the country every week, how many of you can recall any significant number of accidents involving these ‘shite drivers’ in recent times? Being on the road so much, we encounter some seriously shite driving & getting our days work done without getting hurt or killed is an achievement. Those who complain are the same ones who usually drive like assholes, pissing everybody else off. Then when they encounter a taxi/van/truck driver & get a taste of their own medicine, they’re on here for a whinge ! If you can’t handle the stress that goes with driving in Ireland today, then park up & get your bike out.
Looks to me that if we removed taxis from the roads alltogether you would still be complaining about the number of buses/private cars being used to replace them.
I see that Jim Travers is one of our beloved bus drivers,(re photo’s).Take a chill pill Jim. Who trains the dublin bus/bus eireann drivers. What test board do they go to? How many accidents have we seen envolving bus’s? How many people have been killed in/or by bus’s. I Saw a busdriver trying to run down a cyclist/courier deliberately.What are you doing taking photo’s while driving. No wonder they are envolved in accidents.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIafOqN0F28
Louth Maniac what I replied it was a reasonable assessment of Dublin. I know you live in a area where Taxi Drivers are attacking the non nationals at ranks and their union leaders moaning to papers and radio. We havent stooped to that primitive low yet in Dublin!!
[comment deleted for being offensive and racist]
Firstly, I do not drive a bus and secondly on no occasion have I taken photographs while in control of a motor vehicle when in motion. Adding to this, my interests include a number of other media contributions, therefore my comments on this site cannot be interpreted as an individual crank and gripe at everything and anything, especially taxi drivers. From the number of comments and also the comments that were deleted as being offensive, it appears that I may have stood on the toes of quite a number of people, for that I may receive a taxi fatwa. This cannot be seen as unusual because violent and intimidating tactics have taken place before by taxi men against fellow taxi men. This can also be seen at taxi ranks where arguments among taxi drivers often take place when a wheelchair user wants to be taken up the road and the taxi driver happens to be at the top of the queue.The wheelchair user is moved onto the next driver and then all hell breaks loose.
The whole point of this site is missing, which therefore plunges comments and opinions to the debts of slagging and name calling game when in fact the purpose of the site is to expose shitedrivers. There are good taxi drivers and there are bad taxi drivers, there are good bus drivers and then there are bad bus drivers. The evidence of bad taxi driving is there for all to see.What appears to come out of all the talk is, that one may voice one's opinion about all other drivers except once again taxi drivers. It is important to note that taxi drivers have no special status above any other member of the public.The displaying of a roof sign only implies that the vehicle concerned is a taxi and nothing else, therefore the taxi as a public Service Vehicle is required to have its driver operate the vehicle in a competent and professional manner that takes into account the safety and welfare of its passengers and other road users. On observation does this really happen? If anything there are members of the public who have far more qualifications for driving on our roads than those who hold public service vehicle licences. So in order to bring the taxi industry up to an acceptable standard of professional driving, why not compel all drivers to take the the Institute of Advanced Motorist driving test. Ah no, I hear you say, 30 years driving,why should you take a test, but why not, if you area as competent as you think you are?
Taxi drivers may not be directly involved in road accidents, but the secondary contributions by taxi drivers to accidents may expose a different picture when analysed fully. On reflection, if taxi drivers class themselves as professional drivers due to the nature of their work and the time they spend driving on our roads, then the example they are suppose to project to other road users as competent and professional drivers, runs far short of the expectations sought by professional driving institutions and also public opinion.