ITA PROTESTS
For your convenience we have listed five
main bullet points outlining our grievances, below.
1. Availability and convenience:
TfL and the Mayor have omitted any
door-to-door service for London
Not everyone wants to, or is able to, get
from their origin to their desired destination by walking, cycling or by bus.
Licensed London Taxis may be hailed on the
street or pre booked via many apps.
2. A travel lifeline:
Every Taxi is a Wheelchair Accessible
Vehicle.
Taxis provide 23,000 WAV's.
TfL buses offer only 8,000 WAV's.
Taxi drivers are capable of assisting
people with disabilities. Bus drivers are not.
3. Safety and reliability:
Other than the freedom of personal choice
for Londoners and visitors to the capital for a door-to-door service; Taxis are
essential for Londoners who, at certain times might feel unsafe, such as LGBT,
ethnic minorities or lone females coming out onto a strange street, from a
relative's home, a restaurant, or business meeting, into an area where they
might feel threatened or vulnerable.
Are they expected to walk home?
Or wait at a bus stop?
Some people feel vulnerable on a bus with
strangers.
Would all Londoners or visitors to London
Are London
This basic freedom of choice is being
denied London
4. Manufactured demise of a 365 year icon:
With Taxis being prohibited from all these
new road strategies, Taxi journeys will travel further than necessary, take
longer than necessary and cost the passenger more than necessary.
Using a Taxi will no longer be expedient or
financially viable for the consumer. London
5. Where buses go, Taxis go - Law:
Taxis are denied access to Bank Junction
between 7am and 7pm, and due to be prohibited from Tottenham Court Road, Oxford
Street, Piccadilly Circus, Holborn, huge swathes of Bloomsbury, Old Street, and
from Tooley Street all the way to Greenwich and Lewisham, with the threat of
more to come. No one is taking responsibility for this manufactured genocide of
London
The Mayor, TfL's Commissioner Mike Brown,
and various councillors are playing pass the parcel with their
responsibilities.
To solve this insulting annoyance of
bureaucratic deniability, we propose that a law be drawn up to intrinsically
link the rights of Bus access to Taxi access.
There is no reasonable argument to deny
Taxis access to all Bus Lanes and access to all roads where buses are
permitted.
Taxis need to be protected by law.
What is distressing, is the fact that the
part played by Taxis in the 2010 Mayor's Transport Strategy, has been removed
from the current MTS, proving this is not an oversight, but a plan to erase
Taxis from London's Transport system.
Platitudes from Councils about children and
chronic obstructive pulmonary disease might hold water if they did not grant
access to buses.
Can one only get COPD from a Taxi?
Ten years ago the media constantly
complained about Health & Safety issues, and disabled access was a huge
concern at the forefront of political thinking and social planning.
Now, via the gig economy and a financial
thirst for deregulation, Health & Safety no longer matters, and disabled
access has been relegated to an afterthought.
These protests are not against either
House, or its members.
We leave Millbank alone and ensure there is
access to all emergency and government vehicles in and around the Square.
The idea of being in Parliament Square
The reason we are there three days a week
is born from a fear of 'out of sight, out of mind'.
TfL refuse to address our concerns or
negotiate.
Thank you for your time and patience.
