He’s on in the next half hour or so, be intersting if he’s back-peddling, apparently he’s been widely criticised for his anti-cycling rant.

I hope he sticks by his words. Not that I agree with them in the slightest, but at the moment he appears to be an obnoxious idiot.
If he changes his tune then he’ll just add coward to his list of character faults 😀

Just heard it, apparently it was just “poetic licence” and his core argument (was there one?) is valid. Its for cyclists own benefit because if we make a mistake we get injured but if the motorists make a mistake they just get a dent (from what exactly? a bollard in a car park?), specifically he said they need to
– not use iPods
– not use mobile phone
– wear flourescent jackets and use lights
– not cycle two abreast

Quite what thats got to do with “paying up” or wobbling round potholes i’m not sure, since thats all he seemed to mention in the article.

The man is an oxygen thief. Hopefully his business will suffer catastrophically and he will spend the rest of his days reflecting on his bullshit from under a railway arch.

Sadly, this will not happen. It will all be forgotten tomorrow when the latest “news” on which “celeb” shagged another “celeb” hits the newstands.

His more contrite arguement did have some merit. Drivers see cyclists using iPods and mobiles whilst at the same time complaining about being knocked off. They don’t make the connection however that our group, like any other, includes those who know what their doing and the less experienced all painted with the same brush.
I’ll however paint him with the same brush as the other idiots I ignore.

Whether his point was that cyclists needs to have more common-sense or not (which sounds horribly like defensive post-rationalisation now he recognises he might have broken his business), his tone of voice was inflammatory and not at all in keeping with what he claims his main point was. Judge a man by his deeds, not his words.

Sadly, his core point is right IMO, there’s a lot of really poor, dangerous cycling in London. But it’s been utterly lost because of the tone he used to express it…

I love social media, allows idiots and bullies to hang themselves…

What programme was he on? I want to listen to it myself

Saturday PM.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b01gd4ly

16mins20secs in.

he’s a fool. Not just for his original article, but his defence of what he wrote.
If he reviews the social media he’d see scores of people boycotting his company and cancelling their corporate accounts. Apologising profusely would be the only way to deal with this IMO.

He also seems unaware that it’s not just cyclists using mobiles and iphones when on the road…

I know the fleet manager of their next largest competitor. He’s very happy with the way things are going for Addison Lee. They’re expecting a busy week next week, and an enormous increase in business.

Drivers see cyclists using iPods and mobiles whilst at the same time complaining about being knocked off

true but FFS every journey I do is ruined by piss poor motorists the very few cyclist I met pale into insignificance compared with the knobs behind the wheel of the two ton killing box.

Sadly, his core point is right IMO, there’s a lot of really poor, dangerous cyclingroad users in London the country.

About to debate it on 5 live but it will be the same old guff

who are their largest competitor?

On R5 now.

who are their largest competitor?

Mainly the licensed black cab Cos.

but, http://www.greentomatocars.com/ doing well out of it all I gather

Backtracking like crazy

Caution….this vehicle is reversing….Caution…this vehicle is reversing…

Is this the same guy that has instructed his drivers to break the “unfair” law by driving in the bus lanes, with the promise that he will cover all fines?

Yup! That’s him. Gave £250k to the Tories too.

Ah cheers. Just read his original quote on road.cc – what a numpty!

http://road.cc/content/news/56999-addison-lee-chairman-airs-his-opinion-london-cyclist-deaths

Sounds likes he’s trying to justify his comments typical actions of an ignorant and arrogant man….

Maybe he should lead by example and paint his minicabs statistically safe colours ……

David Mitchell’s take on things 😀

I’m confused, this has appeared on the daily mail website…

http://hanlonblog.dailymail.co.uk/2012/04/minicabber-loses-his-way-in-argument-against-cyclists.html

Mass “die-in” protest at Addison Lee offices.

Nice new quote from him:

“There are a lot of people out there riding bikes and they plainly haven’t had training. They haven’t got a clue and they shouldn’t be on the roads. They are a danger to themselves.”

Grauniad Bike Blog: http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/bike-blog/2012/apr/24/addison-lee-protest-boycott-chairman

“There are a lot of people out there riding bikes and they plainly haven’t had training. They haven’t got a clue and they shouldn’t be on the roads. They are a danger to themselves.”

I’m concerned that despite training and passing a test there are a lot of drivers who are a danger to themselves and everybody else on the road. It seems like some of them even run minicab companies.