Taxi rank - bumper to bumper

Hilly Bill

Spook_ie wrote: »

But again when the rank is at capacity the available distance between cars would be around 20cm.

So assuming that the taxi drivers ALL have the right to use the rank, then if the taxis didn't move up to be nose to tail then there would be the risk of someone waiting to get onto the end of the rank causing an obstruction because a driver was too tardy in closing up the gap.

Therefore for the free running of traffic surely far better they go nose tail from the off

If the rank is full then you dont hang off the back and cause an obstruction. If you have to park up bumper to bumper just to allow another car to join the rank then it must have been full in the first place and you are just trying to sneek another car in at the end.
Therefore for the free running of traffic, a taxi driver uses a bit of common sense and goes somewhere else that has room.

Spook_ie

Hilly Bill wrote: »

If the rank is full then you dont hang off the back and cause an obstruction. If you have to park up bumper to bumper just to allow another car to join the rank then it must have been full in the first place and you are just trying to sneek another car in at the end.
Therefore for the free running of traffic, a taxi driver uses a bit of common sense and goes somewhere else that has room.

Think you misunderstand what I'm trying to say. Sticking with Aston Quay.
if there are 7 cars on it, my view is they should all be at the "exit" end of the rank, that way if any other cars arrive wishing to join the rank then they aren't reliant on waiting for someone to wake up/stop reading the paper/run back to the car or whatever they are doing before moving up.

I iwouldn't condone the hanging off the back of the rank but unless the vehicles are already moved up to the front then there will be instances of cars waiting whilst the rank "condenses" to it's minimum length

Is that clearer?

Hilly Bill

Spook_ie wrote: »

Think you misunderstand what I'm trying to say. Sticking with Aston Quay.
if there are 7 cars on it, my view is they should all still be at the "exit" end of the rank, that way if any other cars arrive wishing to join the rank then they aren't reliant on waiting for someone to wake up/stop reading the paper/run back to the car or whatever they are doing before moving up.

I iwouldn't condone the hanging off the back of the rank but unless the vehicles are already moved up to the front then there will be instances of cars waiting whilst the rank "condenses" to it's minimum length

Is that clearer?

Waiting the few seconds for others is fine but not waiting until the first car gets a fare. Surely its bad practice if you dont move up with the car in front and leave enough room for yourself to get out if needed.
For the cars at a rank to be bumper to bumper would indicate that the rule of that rank would be the first car in line gets the next fare regardless of whether the fare wanted to use a different car like what Victor said earlier for wheelchairs or 6 people etc and in turn goes against the issue of being allowed to chose a car thats not first in line at that rank.

Spook_ie

Hilly Bill wrote: »

Waiting the few seconds for others is fine but not waiting until the first car gets a fare. Surely its bad practice if you dont move up with the car in front and leave enough room for yourself to get out if needed.
For the cars at a rank to be bumper to bumper would indicate that the rule of that rank would be the first car in line gets the next fare regardless of whether the fare wanted to use a different car like what Victor said earlier for wheelchairs or 6 people etc and in turn goes against the issue of being allowed to chose a car thats not first in line at that rank.

Possibly so, but if a rank has a capacity of 11 vehicles , and to fit those 11 vehicles on to it would entail leaving minimal spacing between the vehicles, then should the driver be ignoring the bye law that requires them to

Every street service vehicle standing for hire at an appointed
stand shall be placed
(a) within the limits of the appointed stand described in column
(3) of Schedule 1, 2 or 3, as appropriate
(b) in the position specified in column (5) of Schedule 1, 2 or 3,
as appropriate, opposite the mention of the appointed stand
in column (3) of the Schedule concerned, and
(c) in case there is no street service vehicle already at the
appointed stand and, in any other case, next in order to the
street service vehicle at the appointed stand and as near as
practicable to the street service vehicle immediately in front.
A street service vehicle standing for hire at an appointed stand
shall be placed in single line by the kerb and parallel to the kerb
or with the rear of the vehicle to the kerb. A vehicle shall not be
placed more than 45 centimeters from the kerb

And if they ignore that bye law are they guilty of an infringement?

Hilly Bill

Spook_ie wrote: »

Possibly so, but if a rank has a capacity of 11 vehicles , and to fit those 11 vehicles on to it would entail leaving minimal spacing between the vehicles, then should the driver be ignoring the bye law that requires them to

And if they ignore that bye law are they guilty of an infringement?

It says As practicable which means as close as possible whilst giving yourself enough room to get out.
If the rank holds 11 and to hold 11 the cars must be bumper to bumper then someone has made an error in their calculations and that rank should be limited to 10 to make it Practicable .
I can get 6 passengers into my car at a push but its not really Practicable now is it?
Was it you that said that taxis are not parked in a rank ? If the driver is asleep or out of the car or reading a paper then they are clearly parked up.

Spook_ie

Hilly Bill wrote: »

It says As practicable which means as close as possible whilst giving yourself enough room to get out.
If the rank holds 11 and to hold 11 the cars must be bumper to bumper then someone has made an error in their calculations and that rank should be limited to 10 to make it Practicable .
I can get 6 passengers into my car at a push but its not really Practicable now is it?
Was it you that said that taxis are not parked in a rank ? If the driver is asleep or out of the car or reading a paper then they are clearly parked up.

No I'd have to disagree there, the requisite is that the driver doesn't leave his vehicle unattended, asleep in it isn't unattended, reading a paper in it isn't unattended, being sat in the taxi behind talking to one of your mates...debatable but I wouldn't class it as unattended.

The rank is designated as 11 vehicles until such time as it's re-designated to 10 vehicles then bumper to bumper is the order of the day

As a comparison the following ranks would have the following space available between vehicles when at capacity

Dawson St 4 vehicles 27 meters 6.75 m per taxi ( sounds very odd )
Earlsfort Terrace 5 vehicles 26 meters 5.2 m per taxi
Holles St 3 vehicles 15 meters 5 meters per taxi
O'Connell Street West side 31 meters 6 vehicles 5.16 m per taxi
O'Connell Street East Side 66 meters 13 vehicles 5.07 m per taxi

Given the length of a 2007/8 Avensis Taxi is 4.645 m (Wikipedia) then it's easy to see that for majority of ranks when operating at full capacity there is little room for leaving gaps between them

The answer would seem to be go for a taxi on Dawson Street they have enough room that even a bus driver could get out or ask the council why they have such a variance in the length of road space allocated to taxis in different ranks.

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