Dangerous Taxi Driver, Heathcote 27-9-09

[MarkL]

Hi all,

On the return leg of Sunday's Waterfall ride a taxi cut us off in a dangerous manner while turning into the Caltex servo at Heathcote. This very nearly resulted in a collison which would have involved many riders.
I got the details of the taxi and yesterday contacted the Ministry of Transport at Parramatta to report the driver. They said they would talk to the taxi company (Premier Cabs, taxi plate T5701) who would in turn talk to the driver and call me back the end of this week or early next week.
I''ll post when l have news.

Cheers,
Mark

[geoff m]

On ya Mark,

Its this sort of extra effort which will slowly result in behaviour change, which most of us just don't have time to do, but really should do.

Mark also turned around, and went back to the Servo to get the rego details, whilst sacrificing a very quick wind assisted bunch ride back to the servo.

[jimmy]

I hate to tell you this, but the taxi company will speak to the driver, who will come up with some bullsh*t story, which the company will take hook, line and sinker, and they will then dismiss your complaint.

If you even get a response from the taxi company.

The Taxi's own complaint service should be called appeasement, they take the drivers story over your own.

By going through the Department of Transport, you at least have one more avenue of complaint. When the Taxi company comes back to you with a null resolution, tell them you aren't happy and it will be referred back to the Department of Transport. They will then mark on the drivers record that the complaint has occurred and that it wasn't resolved to a sufficient level.

Be prepared to hound the Taxi company as well.

Good Luck

James

[weiyun]

Good on Mark for spending the time to register this issue. Despite denials and excuses, hopefully the taxi driver would be more careful next time. Once spoken to, behavioural alterations are bound to happen.

Video is what we need to document these incidents and would go a long way to prove the case and support a traffic offence ticket. Wallet and DMP are where the hurt can be felt by these taxi drivers. Of course, this is easier said than done.

[Adrian E]

Regarding the Taxi, there was a research study that has found taxi drivers and small vans are most likely to show road aggression to cyclists: www.etcproceedings.org/paper/download/715

I've contacted the MoT before and had a similar experience to James. It would be great to follow up with them and find out what they've done.

Btw: Audi are selling bike video cameras for cheap:
http://aldi.com.au/au/html/offers_20091001.htm

[Julio]

I was coming back down grand parade this morning after a spin to the nulla and was just about to turn into bestic when a car reversed (at speed) out of a driveway almost ending my bikes life (and maybe hurting me but I really really love my bike so lets think about the bikes feelings yeah)

I yelled, screamed and screached to a holt whilst elstupidito drove off. Oh whats that in front of us....a red light...time for some verbal. I pulled next to this very pissed off lady who said THOSE words that all cyclist hear after a near miss or accident 'I DIDN'T SEE YOU' well if your not looking I guess you're not going to see anything I said back in a calm but pissed manner.

She then started to shake her head like it was my fault for her stupid and slightly dangerous actions....hmm my love for human kind (and the search for the elusive careful driver) is waining.

[MarkL]

Excuse the delay!
Last Thursday week l received a call from Ted Robinson of Premier Cabs. Ted reported that the incident is on record and that the driver had been spoken to.
The driver said that he thought that he had made a safe turn into the servo. I explained the details of the incident which Ted was aware of and l assured him that it certainly wasn't safe but indeed a very dangerous manoeuvre. Ted repeated that the incident is on record.

You have to hope that the driver will be careful in the future.