Official Close Pass Licencing response

[magnatom]

Here is my reply back. Short, polite and too the point.

Thank you for your letter Ref: xxx xxxx xxx and dated 29th January 2009. In this letter you describe the reactions of the taxi driver to my complaint, i.e. that he thinks that I swerved towards him, and that he felt that it was safe to pass at the time of the incident. However, what your letter does not include is any indication of your findings, i.e. did you feel that the driver was driving in a safe manner? Did the driver drive dangerously? You have also failed to include any information about any disciplinary procedures that you may have taken against the driver.

As I supplied you with video evidence of the incident, I assume that you have reviewed the taxi drivers account of the incident with this in mind.

I would be grateful of you could supply this information, as this will dictate my next course of action with regards to this complaint. I look forward to your reply within the next 14 days.

 

[tdr1nka]

Concise and well put Mags!
More power to your elbow.

 

[Rhythm Thief]

Good letter Mag. Best of luck with this, no one should get away with driving like that.

 

[magnatom]

Aha! It seems that one of the junior licencing officers in Glasgow has been a naughty boy!

I've just received this very speedy e-mail:

I refer to the letter sent to you and can advise you that the letter was
sent on my behalf and in my absence as I was on annual leave last week.
I can also advise you that the letter would not have been forwarded to
you in its current state had I been in a position to review it prior to
sending.

As per standard procedure it is my intention to speak to the
investigating officers in relation to their investigation so that an
informed decision can be made on what, if any action is to be taken
against the driver.

In the meantime please disregard the recent correspondence from this
office.

 

[col]

You really got a result there,now lets see what they do about it? I worry that people who make mistakes, or are ignorant to your superior understanding on the roads, which in all probabilility are the majority of problems on the road, are in for a lot of grief now you have this option. You are too keen to take this type of action and keep pushing it. I wait for a result for you, when someone does actually lose thier job, and you and some others say how they deserved it, and they caused it themselves.

 

[tdr1nka]

I love it! They're going to investigate the investigation now?

 

[magnatom]

You really got a result there,now lets see what they do about it? I worry that people who make mistakes, or are ignorant to your superior understanding on the roads, which in all probabilility are the majority of problems on the road, are in for a lot of grief now you have this option. You are too keen to take this type of action and keep pushing it. I wait for a result for you, when someone does actually lose thier job, and you and some others say how they deserved it, and they caused it themselves.

Col, you are talking a complete load of gibberish! So it is not just my riding you don't like but my complaint technique as well! I suppose I am to blame for the chap at the licencing board sending out the reply too early?

Oh yes, you are right. If I hadn't been too far out on the road then the taxi wouldn't have passed so close, so I wouldn't have had to send a complaint, and the junior staff member wouldn't have sent out the letter to early and he wouldn't have got in to trouble from his boss.

In fact, if I had never been born.....

Yes you are right. It is my fault. What is my penance Col...

 

[col]

Col, you are talking a complete load of gibberish! So it is not just my riding you don't like but my complaint technique as well! I suppose I am to blame for the chap at the licencing board sending out the reply too early?

Oh yes, you are right. If I hadn't been too far out on the road then the taxi wouldn't have passed so close, so I wouldn't have had to send a complaint, and the junior staff member wouldn't have sent out the letter to early and he wouldn't have got in to trouble from his boss.

In fact, if I had never been born.....

Yes you are right. It is my fault. What is my penance Col...

What is more worrying is that you cant see what your riding style is actually causing sometimes, and then because of your crusade, you take it to extremes, and other people are going to suffer because of it. Unless you can see, but choose to go on with it anyway.

 

[magnatom]

What is more worrying is that you cant see what your riding style is actually causing sometimes, and then because of your crusade, you take it to extremes, and other people are going to suffer because of it. Unless you can see, but choose to go on with it anyway.

So you really are saying that if someone in the licencing board loses their job over this, then I am at fault!! (I think rapped knuckles is more likely, but there you go)

Now that has to be a classic that even a novice bonj couldn't come up with. Priceless!

 

[tdr1nka]

What is more worrying is that you cant see what your riding style driving is actually causing sometimes, and then because of your crusade impatience you take it to extremes, and other people are going to suffer because of it. Unless you can see, but choose to go on with it anyway.

Send this to the taxi driver..........

 

[col]

So you really are saying that if someone in the licencing board loses their job over this, then I am at fault!! (I think rapped knuckles is more likely, but there you go)

Now that has to be a classic that even a novice bonj couldn't come up with. Priceless!

I mean drivers,there are plenty who dont have your understanding or opinion on what is the right way to drive,and then there are those which make mistakes on the road, but im sure you will make the most of these.

 

[col]

Send this to the taxi driver..........

Replace with the word cyclist, it goes all ways, and a cyclist imaptient and not willing to give an inch is just as dangerous.

 

[magnatom]

I mean drivers,there are plenty who dont have your understanding or opinion on what is the right way to drive,and then there are those which make mistakes on the road, but im sure you will make the most of these.

Umm, the Highway Code provides a pretty good understanding of the way drivers are expected to drive, nothing to do with me!

I would like to also point out at this point that in the original letter to the licencing board I did stress that I did not want the driver to loose his job, but stressed that some retraining might be in order. Glad to clear that up!

 

[tdr1nka]

I mean drivers,there are plenty who dont have your understanding or opinion on what is the right way to drive,and then there are those which make mistakes on the road, but im sure you will make the most of these.

In general drivers should and need to be much more aware of how and where a cyclist can use the road and not be in a position to disregard or compromise the safety of others.

Ignorance is bliss then is it? Oh great, I feel so much safer.

FWIW Mags has always been an advocate of educating drivers and raising awareness. No one is out to deliberately lose people their jobs.

 

[magnatom]

In fact, for completeness, here is my original complaint.

I am writing to you as I was unfortunately involved in a nasty incident with one of your licensed drivers (Plate number 2266, registration number SG54KRJ) on the 6^th January 2009 at approximately 8:35am.

I am a cycle commuter and cycle daily between xxxx and the xxxxx where I work. I have been doing this now for 3 years and in that time have learned a number of techniques for safe cycling. I also try my best to remain within the rules of the road, i.e. I do not red light jump or pavement cycle. In fact I now campaign for better cycling and better driving on the roads. As part of my campaigning I video my commute every day using a helmet camera and post videos of incidents (including any mistakes I make) on the web.

A video of the 6th of January incident can be found at
View: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=notuuDg1-tQ


On this occasion I was leaving the roundabout at Broomhill and heading onto Dumbarton Road towards Whiteinch. At this point I take a prominent road position called the Primary road position (defined in Cyclecraft by John Franklyn) . On this occasion I took the primary position for a number of reasons. The temperature was –3C, therefore outside the normal driving line there were patches of ice, so I wanted to stay on road that would be less slippery. I also take this position here due to the fast approaching pinch point produced by the protruding pavement and parked cars. On this occasion there were also cars on the opposite side of the road, so there was not enough space for an overtake, and taking the primary position discourages overtakes where it is unsafe to do so.
Despite the lack of space the driver of the private hire vehicle decided to overtake anyway. During this manoeuvre he passed within centimetres of my bike, frightening me considerably. As a result I reacted by pushing my hand out. The whole of my palm managed to make contact with the drivers window, (you can hear the point of contact), which serves to demonstrate how close the car actually was. I estimate that he was centimetres away from hitting my bike, and knocking me off.At the same time you can also hear a car driver hit their horn on the other side of the road as the private hire vehicle managed to pass very close to the oncoming vehicle. All of this occurred when the private hire vehicle had a passenger in the back.
The private hire vehicle stopped a short way along the road and I stopped to ask why he had passed so close (I swore, but I was shaken by the incident). His response was ‘ you were in the middle of the road, you shouldn’t be in the middle of the road.’ So it would appear that he justified threatening my life because he was annoyed with my road position.
Due to the seriousness of this incident I am considering going to the police as this could certainly be considered as dangerous driving. However, I thought I would in the first instance contact you as his licensing body. I do not necessarily want this driver to loose his job, but he, at the very least needs seriously reprimanded and possibly retrained. I would like to hear a justification from him for his actions.
This is not the first time I have had close passes from private hire driver as this second video demonstrates (
View: http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=oJftDy8cQys
). This happened some time ago and I don’t want to take any action, however, it suggests that this type of attitude exists within a proportion of taxi drivers.
I have previously been involved with a cycle safety campaign with First Bus (http://tinyurl.com/ynut6u) and I am currently in discussions with Arriva Buses to develop some driver training material. Therefore, I wonder if you would be interested in helping with some form of campaign aimed at taxi drivers and drivers of private hire cars. I was thinking about a campaign along the following lines (http://homepage.ntlworld.com/pete.meg/wcc/report/WBT-bus-cycle.pdf) obviously with the emphasis changed to taxi/cyclist interaction. I think this type of campaign would be very beneficial to both groups and could produce some good publicity for the licensing authority. I have carbon copied this e-mail to the Evening Times as they have been interested in my campaigning in the past and might be interested in any publicity that results from this.

Thank you for your help in this matter and I look forward to hearing from you very shortly.