Friday night I had to emergency stop to avoid hitting a taxi that was u-turning from stationary from my side of the road (Waverley Bridge for burghers), I over-egged it a bit but would have slammed the taxi if I’d not stopped or slowed a lot. I did have time to shout “are you awake?” to which the driver laughed and said “at least I indicated”.

I impotently flipped the bird, but now query: worth going to the rozzers? (I could have tried to get a witness) and/or complaining to licensing authority?

98% of Edinburgh taxi drivers are uncts. Actual true SCIENCE fact.

But polis won’t be interested as no collision.

And the licensing authority say dangerous driving isn’t their purview.

Taxis do that all the time. Lack of awareness of your surroundings there Al!

Thought as much stu_N

BY – I clearly failed to ride defensively!

i regularly use waverley bridge at night, ive never had this happen to me.
(i do drive a bus though)
he probably saw you and just didnt care, your life is of secondary importance to him making a good wage on a friday.
probably is worth going to the rozzers imo, if he does it regularly other road users may also have reported him for it, its careless/dangerous driving, thats a very serious offence for a professional driver.

I don’t have his details – but it occurred ot me they might be interested (though aracer’s experiences are noted).

I’d just turned right from Princes St, not going super fast, I reckon he started his manoeuvre from the rank, just after I would have entered his field of vision – daft thing to do as traffic likely to be doing as I did at the time.

I agree taxi drivers are pretty scary – I ride way more defensively around that area for that reason (and numb-nuts peds).

I used to hate seeing a Black cab in the road in Glasgow, you NEVER could predict whether they would pull a uie or screech to a halt. Bastards!

Does anyone ride past the backsouth entrance to Waverly, where the Council has put a temporary taxi rank by the ped x-ing?

Pure chaos.

I believe it is called a “Taxi Rank”

HTH

get on the pavement and practice your manuals you whingeing old git ;P

I’m hoping the new rules about the on the spot fines will catch some of them out. Driver like a@@sholes. I’d rather walk or stay sober than give my hard earned readies to them.

My eldest was getting all excited about a near miss that he had the other day, my mate says to him, you’ll have hundreds of near misses in your life, don’t worry about it.

alfabus – Member
I believe it is called a “Taxi Rank”

YAY! someone got it!

Good job your brakes were not attached to the bike with snot wasn’t it?

Yes, the paper mache is holding up well…

This might help your rage a bit.

One of my mates (a well built rugby player) had the same happen to him, heading towards Fountain Park the taxi driver passed him and turned straight left while he was pretty much along side. He dropped his shoulder and connected with the rear light cluster of the taxi (from what he says he didn’t have much option) and heard the lovely cracking sound as he connected (fortunately not his shoulder!). Could have ended badly but he was fairly happy with a sore shoulder for a few days.

Just to clarify to any taxi driver reading this to whom the exact thing may have happened in the exact place – I made this story up based on something I overheard at a bus stop and have no recollection of who the people involved in the story may be!

Along with 3 point turns on busy high streets, 45mph in a 30 zone when they’re busy, 20mph when they’re not, stopping for a chat in the middle of the road, double parking when there’s plenty of space 5m away, pretending they’re pulling in but continuing onwards when you start to overtake, and generally being the biggest bunch of ****s you’ll ever have the misfortune to share the road with, the U-turn in front of oncoming traffic just happens to be a standard manouevre that these taxi rankers have to perfect before passing their test.
Edit-despite all of the above, they must also claim to be the best/safest drivers on the road.

though aracer’s experiences are noted

I’ve not been in and made a statement, so let’s not jump to conclusions just yet – mainly frustrated that they won’t pursue my other witnesses. Last time I complained about a driver they did suggest if they were local they would pop round and have a word (that driver was from West Midlands area – apparently they have shootings and stabbings to worry about there). I strongly suspect this driver is local, so my trip shouldn’t be totally wasted. I’ll take the other regs in with me, as there’s always a chance if I speak to the right person they could still follow them up.

Anyway, more chance of them being interested in my case of pre-meditated stupidity than something which could be put down as SMIDL.

I hate edinburgh taxis! They seem to like buzzing as close as possible as well. I was in one the other day and the guy clearly had trouble seeing well, he was squinting out the corner of his eyes to see things, bit worrying. I’m going to cover my self in 360 degree camera coverage and live on the roads til I get one done. Well maybe not.