Cabbie diversion figures a long way from the truth

Published: 8 April, 2011

• THE maths being used by Radio Taxis Group (RTG) to attack the left-turn ban in Bloomsbury as damaging to the environment is fishy (Cabbies’ junction ban fury, March 25). 

According to RTG’s information, the forced detour for taxi drivers will add an extra 3.67 million taxi miles a year. 

I arrived at a more sensible 276,000 miles. If one overestimates the detour distance by a factor of nearly two (it’s more like 0.177, not 0.333 miles) and assumes that every single one of the 22,000 licensed cab drivers (1996 figure) will pass through that specific intersection twice every day, one is bound to come up with a silly figure. The carbon calculation is a red herring (or is it a green herring?). 

Was it created to divert attention away from the anger on display as taxi drivers flout the ban on a daily basis? Ten metres of extra curbing has been added to counter this and still taxis and other cars can be seen driving defiantly around it. 

I’m amazed by the sense of entitlement some road users seem to have, to see the neighbourhood as a highway that they must have an unfettered run through, or even as a car park for Oxford Street shopping. 

The needs of the many pedestrians in the area should always come first.

CLARE HILL
WC1