Head of Addison Lee tells its drivers to use bus lanes/cycle lanes (if they kill cyclists, oh well)

He'll probably say they have to display a badge or other symbol that means "cripple on board".

I fucking knew it!!

Yeah, but how, even with this plastering of CCTV cameras, do you determine whether the passengers of the bus lane-using taxi are people with disabilities? I don't reckon the cameras are quite that high-tech yet.

That would be very very costly to police in terms of man power checking it.

As Pickmans said, you would have to rely on some sort of recognition software which can be awfully flawed.

I once got a ticket for driving in a bus lane even though it was suspended due to road works and I had to drive in it unless I wanted to collide with oncoming traffic

i don't know why you don't think it worth going down the rather simpler anpr route. after all, if number plates can already be read by some cameras - including at the entrances and exits of the congestion zone - why not use that?

Ah yes - the "undertaking at speed" pilot.

if only they would start something like that, it would get the traffic moving rather quicker after a fatal accident.

I haven't been quite honest with you, because I was/am offended by your "effectively an ambulance" howler. Basically, the taxi company that has the contract for Taxicard already have a distinctive badge on their livery (it makes it easier for people with Taxicards to hail only those taxis that accept Taxicard), it's the yellow, orange and black "target" logo on the front of ComCab/Datacab black taxis, but while it denotes that they can carry people with disabilities/have wheelchair ramps, it doesn't denote whether they are, at any specific time, carrying people with disabilities, IYSWIM.

I'm not sure this would be workable / enforceable. If all minicab drivers had the sticker available, the chances are they would misuse it.

You can't tell from looking at a passenger whether they have 'a disability' - there is a lot more to disabilities than wheelchair users.

I'll settle for this

they should have an array of lights on top which can be switched on and will flicker in a code to indicate the precise disability of the person or people in the cab and if the passengers are sufficiently disabled then the cab will be permitted to use the bus lane. and if they're not disabled enough then a drone will destroy the cab in a surgical strike.

The difference between black cabs and minicabs is that the customer is charged for sitting in traffic in black cabs.
If they weren't allowed to use bus lanes, I wouldn't use them. To be fair I do very rarely, but even so, I would never use them. I still use minicabs.
So not allowing black cabs to use bus lanes would mean a reduction in them. I think they're a good thing given the training, though I accept this is a marginal opinion.

Are the drones allowed to hover above bus lanes though?

who's going to stop them?

I believe all vehicles are allowed to be in bus lanes for a width of two vehicle lengths. I'm not sure why this is. I suspect it is to avoid obstructions.
I also have no idea where I got that from, or why I believe it to be true, but I think I've heard it somewhere.

At your assumption/idea that because I (or any other person with disabilities) am in a taxi, it's "effectively an ambulance". Of course it isn't, not even if it's taking me to an appointment at a hospital, it's a taxi, and the reason they were given the ability to use bus lanes was pragmatic - to ease congestion!

I agree. I haven't been a fan of Addison Lee since the early '80s. They weren't/aren't a "live and let live" company as far as competition is concerned, is all I'll say.

Good citizens with shotguns?

not sure a shotgun will take out a drone at 3000 feet.

Good point. Trusty SMLEs, then.

A drone at 3000 feet that takes out cabs without stickers?
Who is paying? I don't think you've thought this through.

you missed the bit about the flashing lights and if the code wasn't disabled enough a message would flash to the drone which would destroy the cab in a surgical strike.

i don't think the issue's where but when. not so much of that sort of thing these days.

I agree with what you are saying, though I would say that switching on/off a badge or having disabled only taxis is not practical for monitoring purposes. The CCTV identifying badges issue is an issue isn't it? And which cab driver is going to volunteer for "only" the care-jobs. Sorry if that phrase causes offence, I couldn't think of another one.

i refer you to the 'not so much of that sort of thing these days' part of my post. of course it still happens. but we've been going on about disabled people using vehicles which are NOT ambulances for quite some time now. in years gone by some of them would have been transported by ambulances too.

I know that no offense was intended, hence me starting post #60 with "I know you're not deliberately being offensive...", I was just trying to make the point that some people with disabilities (including myself) would read that, and if they weren't aware of anything else you'd written, would view your comment as medicalising their disability and themselves. We can be a bit chippy, you see...

Really? (I don't know how to point out this is not sarcastic)