Taxi rank - bumper to bumper

foggy_lad

yoginindublin wrote: »

Hi! I just have a question. As a passenger, if I see a line of taxi, can I choose not to take the next on in the line?

Yes and it is also illegal for taxis in Dublin to park on the rank so close to the car in front that they can't pull away from the rank if a passenger wants to get in.

like these taxis on Aston Quay

Spook_ie

foggy_lad wrote: »

Yes and it is also illegal for taxis in Dublin to park on the rank so close to the car in front that they can't pull away from the rank if a passenger wants to get in.

like these taxis on Aston Quay

Have to show me where it says it's illegal to park close together! Of course you could always get them to spread out and hang off the back off the rank to give you something else to moan about ( you SURE you're not a secret taxi driver? )

Might not allow you to immediately take a car of your choice but if you are willing to wait until a car at the front moves off then no problem AFAICS.

If your in a hurry then take the one at the front or flag one down

EDIT there could be an illegality if there were more cars on the rank than allowed for in the relevant by laws, in the case of Aston Quay 11 vehicles
http://www.dublincity.ie/RoadsandTraffic/Documents/Taxi_Rank_Bye-_Laws_2011_Fina.pdf

foggy_lad

Spook_ie wrote: »

Have to show me where it says it's illegal to park close together! Of course you could always get them to spread out and hang off the back off the rank to give you something else to moan about ( you SURE you're not a secret taxi driver? )

Might not allow you to immediately take a car of your choice but if you are willing to wait until a car at the front moves off then no problem AFAICS.

If your in a hurry then take the one at the front or flag one down

EDIT there could be an illegality if there were more cars on the rank than allowed for in the relevant by laws, in the case of Aston Quay 11 vehicles
http://www.dublincity.ie/RoadsandTraffic/Documents/Taxi_Rank_Bye-_Laws_2011_Fina.pdf

http://www.dublincity.ie/RoadsandTraffic/Documents/Taxi_Rank_Bye-_Laws_2011_Fina.pdf

The driver of a street service vehicle shall comply with any directions given to him or her by a member of the Garda Síochána in relation to placing of the street service vehicle at the appointed stand or the bringing of the street service vehicle into, or the removal of the street service vehicle from, the appointed stand.

If told to leave the rank by a Garda none of those vehicles would be able to.

AlekSmart

foggy_lad wrote: »

If told to leave the rank by a Garda none of those vehicles would be able to.

Will ye give over with that oul Guff,Foggy...:eek:

You and me both know,that save for the odd "Spectacular",when an RTE Camera Crew accompany the multi-disciplinary Garda/Revenue/DSP/RSA Hit Squad,the Gardai have withdrawn from any hands-on supervision of Taxi Driver on-street behaviour.

This has allowed quite a body of Hard-Chaws to assert their dominance on many City Centre Streets,with many of these Gentlemen having no difficulty at all in ignoring Garda instructions....;)

Spook_ie

foggy_lad wrote: »

http://www.dublincity.ie/RoadsandTraffic/Documents/Taxi_Rank_Bye-_Laws_2011_Fina.pdf
If told to leave the rank by a Garda none of those vehicles would be able to.

THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT and nothing in the bye laws requiring you to leave a gap, how you remove your vehicle if instructed by the G.S would be up to you to get the guys to give you the extra foot you need

foggy_lad

Spook_ie wrote: »

THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT and nothing in the bye laws requiring you to leave a gap, how you remove your vehicle if instructed by the G.S would be up to you to get the guys to give you the extra foot you need

It does not say remove the vehicle when some space can be sorted out with the guys or after a few cars get a fare so that room can be made for you, it must be done to comply with the direction of a garda and not doing so means you are in breach of the bye-laws and are then no longer plying for hire.

Spook_ie

Circular Argument....

There is no LAW requiring you to leave a gap. Just because the GS can ask you to leave a rank or park your vehicle backwards on it doesn't make it a LAW to leave a gap.

Victor

A garda is entitled to give reasonable directions to drivers. If a driver is boxed in, the garda can get other drivers to move.

rainbowdash

Surely if you want to able to offer a service that enables you to pull off mid rank you would leave enough space between you and the car in front of you in the first place?

Spook_ie

rainbowdash wrote: »

Surely if you want to able to offer a service that enables you to pull off mid rank you would leave enough space between you and the car in front of you in the first place?

Maybe so, however, without a full rank photograph it's difficult to tell if they are squashed together to allow the 11 cars on the rank or to fit a 12th. If it's to accommodate the latter then yeah an infringement, but at the end of the day who cares except for the Anti Taxi Brigade of Boards.ie

Losty Dublin

Spook_ie wrote: »

Maybe so, however, without a full rank photograph it's difficult to tell if they are squashed together to allow the 11 cars on the rank or to fit a 12th. If it's to accommodate the latter then yeah an infringement, but at the end of the day who cares except for the Anti Taxi Brigade of Boards.ie

If anything it gives them the choice of an extra taxi on the rank so it's win win for the begrudgers

corktina

Spook_ie wrote: »

THERE IS NO REQUIREMENT and nothing in the bye laws requiring you to leave a gap, how you remove your vehicle if instructed by the G.S would be up to you to get the guys to give you the extra foot you need

no but obstructing the highway is an offense and those taxis are obstructing anyone in a wheelchair, with a pram or making deliveries.

Losty Dublin

corktina wrote: »

no but obstructing the highway is an offense and those taxis are obstructing anyone in a wheelchair, with a pram or making deliveries.

Once they are in a designated taxi rank then they are fine. It's up to pedestrians to exercise a certain amount of due care in and around vehicles, parked or moving.

Spook_ie

corktina wrote: »

no but obstructing the highway is an offense and those taxis are obstructing anyone in a wheelchair, with a pram or making deliveries.

Once again there is NO legal requirement to leave a space for anyone between the vehicles, the rank is NOT designated into 11 equidistant spaces by any linear marking, not like a parking bay in a pay n display area. Also it is not a loading bay so no requirement to cater for deliveries.

!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.! Parking Bays

!_______________________________________! Taxi Rank

As long as ther are no more than 11 taxis no harm being done except to the ATBB

corktina

i disagree...they have no right to prevent pedestrian access

foggy_lad

Spook_ie wrote: »

Once again there is NO legal requirement to leave a space for anyone between the vehicles, the rank is NOT designated into 11 equidistant spaces by any linear marking, not like a parking bay in a pay n display area. Also it is not a loading bay so no requirement to cater for deliveries.

!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.!.__.! Parking Bays

!_______________________________________! Taxi Rank

As long as ther are no more than 11 taxis no harm being done except to the ATBB

So if i get into a taxi that is blocked into the rank as described in the pictures and the driver can't exit the rank what is the story then? I can tell you if a taxi driver was unable to get away from the rank immediately for me I'd be contacting the regulator with the drivers details and making a complaint!

Spook_ie

foggy_lad wrote: »

So if i get into a taxi that is blocked into the rank as described in the pictures and the driver can't exit the rank what is the story then? I can tell you if a taxi driver was unable to get away from the rank immediately for me I'd be contacting the regulator with the drivers details and making a complaint!

Only if he was unwilling to take you at all, I suppose if he sat with the meter on waiting for them to move you might have a valid complaint, but if he said yes as soon as i can move we'll go, then I wouldn't see them entertaining a complaint about the driver.

Face it they are NOT breaking the law no matter how much you'd like them to be, unless they have 12+ cars on the rank

Spook_ie

corktina wrote: »

i disagree...they have no right to prevent pedestrian access

Why, you want to jay walk across the road do you? There is no need for pedestrian access at that stretch unless you are intending on jaywalking rather than using the crossing

Whatever happened to the jaywalking crackdown?
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056770140

rainbowdash

corktina wrote: »

i disagree...they have no right to prevent pedestrian access

But they are not parkng in a wheelchair bay or across pedestrian crossings.

Pedestrians should use appropriate footpaths and traffic lights, not be dodging between lanes of traffic.

corktina

nonsense, streets are primarily for people not cars. To park any vehicle anywhere like that is obstructing the highway.

murphaph

I don't see any legal problem parking nose to tail but if I owners decent taxi I'd park it so I could leave the rank any time. Too many shît box taxis in Dublin because customers accept them.

foggy_lad

Spook_ie wrote: »

Only if he was unwilling to take you at all, I suppose if he sat with the meter on waiting for them to move you might have a valid complaint, but if he said yes as soon as i can move we'll go, then I wouldn't see them entertaining a complaint about the driver.

Face it they are NOT breaking the law no matter how much you'd like them to be, unless they have 12+ cars on the rank

Is it not each drivers responsibility to leave enough space between them and the car in front so they can pull away from the rank? They can easily do it when one gets a raido job or hailo job.

Spook_ie

foggy_lad wrote: »

Is it not each drivers responsibility to leave enough space between them and the car in front so they can pull away from the rank? They can easily do it when one gets a raido job or hailo job.

Is it a legal requirement though, remember this argument is started by your post

foggy_lad wrote: »

Yes and it is also illegal for taxis in Dublin to park on the rank so close to the car in front that they can't pull away from the rank if a passenger wants to get in.

like these taxis on Aston Quay

Snipped images[/URL]

I just maintain that without relevant laws then what they are doing, though not liked by you IS NOT illegal as long as there are 11 or less cars there

Spook_ie

corktina wrote: »

nonsense, streets are primarily for people not cars. To park any vehicle anywhere like that is obstructing the highway.

No legislation to prevent it happening therefore it's not obstructing the highway. They are not preventing traffic from traveling along the quays because they are in a designated taxi rank, they are not preventing people crossing the road because they aren't blocking designated crossing places.

Spook_ie

Don't know how you can do it in line so if you look at this Google maps picture and figure out where to place the little man icon, you can count the vehicles and see the gaps when there are only 10 vehicles on the rank, squash them all up to get the 11th and hey presto...

Ben D Bus

foggy_lad wrote: »

So if i get into a taxi that is blocked into the rank as described in the pictures and the driver can't exit the rank what is the story then?

Then just like your avatar, you'll look like a muppet for choosing to get into a vehicle that's unable to move.

I will take whatever taxi I want from a rank but I wont make life difficult for myself just to assert my rights. Thats a bit mad.

In practice I usually hail a cab rather than go to a rank anyway. Even in the vicinity of a rank.

Spook_ie

Ben D Bus wrote: »

Then just like your avatar, you'll look like a muppet for choosing to get into a vehicle that's unable to move.

I will take whatever taxi I want from a rank but I wont make life difficult for myself just to assert my rights. Thats a bit mad.

In practice I usually hail a cab rather than go to a rank anyway. Even in the vicinity of a rank.

But surely the whole point of getting into a vehicle that you prefer would be to spend more time in it anyway, therefore he is being catered for just that he doesn't realise it!

corktina

Spook_ie wrote: »

No legislation to prevent it happening therefore it's not obstructing the highway. They are not preventing traffic from traveling along the quays because they are in a designated taxi rank, they are not preventing people crossing the road because they aren't blocking designated crossing places.

that's simply not the case. By the same token there is no law saying you must cross at designated places, in fact in 99% of our streets there is no designated place. If you block the street ais obstruction which is an offence. Traffic driving along the quays is not the ONLY traffic, pedestrians are traffic too

Losty Dublin

corktina wrote: »

that's simply not the case. By the same token there is no law saying you must cross at designated places, in fact in 99% of our streets there is no designated place. If you block the street ais obstruction which is an offence. Traffic driving along the quays is not the ONLY traffic, pedestrians are traffic too

There is absolutely no obligation on a motorist to move a car to accommodate pedestrians to cross the road; be it in a marked or unmarked car parking space, a loading bay or a taxi rank. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise is the case.

corktina

i never said they should move, I said they shouldn't park like that in the first place as they are obstructing other road users.

Spook_ie

corktina wrote: »

that's simply not the case. By the same token there is no law saying you must cross at designated places, in fact in 99% of our streets there is no designated place. If you block the street ais obstruction which is an offence. Traffic driving along the quays is not the ONLY traffic, pedestrians are traffic too

Simple answer.. Show the legislation, thus far there is no evidence of ANY legislation to NOT allow vehicles on a taxi rank to leave a gap between the front and rear.

As to PARKING spaces then yeah there is a requirement that the whole of the vehicle be contained within the designated space and (usually) there would be a marked gap between every set of 2 spaces which would not qualify as part of the parking space

!___!___!X!___!___!X!___!___!

But we're not talking PARKING spaces, we're talking about a taxi rank where the driver is required to remain with the vehicle ( Actual part of the byelaws )