‘Chaos and Confusion’: London Cab Drivers Protest Olympics Over VIP Lanes
- Posted on July 27, 2012 at 12:58pm by
Liz Klimas
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A painted sign designates a special lane for Olympic vehicles ahead of the 2012 Olympic Games. (Photo: Jamie Squire/Getty Images)
London taxi drivers staged their third protest over exclusion from the VIP road lanes dedicated to Olympic traffic, with just hours to go before the games’ opening ceremony.
Cabbies were due to start their protest at London’s Hyde Park corner at 5 p.m. (1600 GMT; 12 p.m. EDT) on Friday, but moved their action up to 2 p.m. after police put restrictions on their demonstration. The BBC reported the traffic in the area being “stationary” around this time.
The Olympics opening ceremony is expected to start at 9 p.m. London time.
The drivers of London’s iconic black cabs are miffed that they are not allowed into the “Games Lanes” reserved for Olympic athletes, officials and VIPs. Cabbies have held two other demonstrations, including one that jammed traffic at Parliament square.
Some drivers argue the iconic black cab was factored into the International Olympics Committee decision to have London host the Games in the first place. (Photo: Wikimedia)
The BBC reported the Vice Chairman of United Cabbies, Len Martin, saying they of course did not “want to disrupt Londoners” but simply “want [...] to bring to the public’s attention the plight of the London cab driver who is unable to bring a service to the Olympic Games during the Games.” Here are more thoughts on the situation reported by BBC:
Bob Crow, general secretary of the Rail Maritime and Transport union, said: “It remains extraordinary that the licensed taxi drivers who are a key part of London’s transport system are still banned from the VIP lanes on the eve of the Olympics.
“The iconic London black cab was a central part of the imagery that secured London the Games and, even at this late stage, Mayor Boris Johnson should step in and allow them to use the Olympics lanes to help keep the city moving.”
Watch this CCTV report covering one of the protests:
Here is raw footage of one of the traffic jams caused by an earlier protest — with much honking:
In addition to the cab drivers feeling “left out” overall, they have also express angst over how it makes their job ferrying customers from point A to point B with so many roads they can’t use. London Loves Business reported Licensed Taxi Drivers Association general secretary Steve McNamara calling the situation “chaos and confusion” that was poorly designed and managed.
Traffic was a concern several years ago when London was still in the running to host this year’s Olympic Games. TheBlaze reported earlier this year when committee officials were visiting the city, traffic controllers changed the lights to green to make sure gridlock that is often seen during rush hour was not experienced by decision makers.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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Sol Invictus
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 3:34pmDidn’t realise the Blazers were such sensitive souls – censorship on this site gets worse every day. That’s why there are fewer and fewer comments on each story.
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 3:47pmNice try…..there are only filters for foul words that are replaced with asterisks, so unless your entire post is a litany of explitives, thereby becoming line after line of asterisks (which you have to admit would be a waste of time to post) I would be more inclined to believe that you are the victim of that common technical problem known to most techies as ID 10T
Report Post »SocialistSlayer
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 4:43pmI don’t have a problem being censored, but then again unless you are a Communist obama supporter my talk is very clean!
Report Post »Sol Invictus
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 4:43pmNope, no obscenities, no asterisks, just an opinion. I bow to your superior knowledge of idiots though.
Report Post »saranda
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 2:38pmWhy is TheBlaze completely devoid of coverage of Romney’s trip to England where even the right wing press has taken to calling him “mittwit” and “worse than Sarah Palin”? The Daily Mails political editor wrote Romney was “devoid of charm, warmth, humour or sincerity”.
He seems intent on being the reinforcement of the ugly American stereotype.
Report Post »booger71
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 4:44pmWell, a phone call from my brother-in-law from England, tends to prove Mitt may have been right. He said moving around through traffic is chaos, people turned away from events that had tickets, stuff the Obama bought media is not saying.
Report Post »MBA
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 2:14pmwow good thing they didn’t ask romney about the traffic in London! Having lived in the “middle of nowhere” during the 2002 Olympics we had very little problem with traffic during the games. Although I did have a broken windshield several times on my car during the road constructon prior to the Olympics. Do you think obamy would be happy if I ragged on romney for that?
Report Post »Silversmith
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 2:06pmRomney‘s assessment seems like it’s right on target. Calling ‘em like you see ’em is a good quality for POTUS.
Silversmith
Report Post »Apple Bite
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 2:03pmHuhuhu! Making Salt Lake City look like Disneyland, no?
Report Post »vinnymac46
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:46pmScrew the safety and security of American athletes and fans alike…now this cab thing is something Obama can rally behind, the plight of the working man, Obama will apologize for America participating in the games that contributed to the cab companies delema and then sign an executive order to send money to the cab drivers of the UK (union bro’s you know) this will cover him in case there are any voting Brits here in the US (legal or not) and then finally like true Obama style, blame George Bush for something.
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:58pmThey are not working men. In fact they are business owners..even if they work for a cab company, they are really a mini business…Obama would punish them and then tell them the reason for their success is the roads…Yea BLOCKED roads! LOL
Report Post »LeadNotFollow
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:32pm…
Report Post »London was not well prepared for the Olympics.
JAMACAMECRAZYMAN
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:49pmI agree Mitt…………….
Report Post »Constructionist
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:31pmSilly ‘little’ people. The elite have built special lanes for special people, which can only be expected. Please go back to generating tax revenue for the State and shut up.
Report Post »jackact
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:28pmWonder who the VIP’s are?
Report Post »Let’s review the Anti-Israel attendees…. Clooney (hypocritical Hollywood lout), Brangelina (because Clooney is going), Michael Douglas (Jewish, so especially extra hypocritical), Zeta-Jones ( to keep an eye on Douglas), the Beckhams (clueless) and Paul McCartney (to sing praises of Obama).
Note to myself: remember to not watch this crap on TV like 90% of America.
:)
blackstone22
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:25pmSounds like a “logistical” problem to me….Romney nailed it. Go Mitt !!!
Report Post »kaydeebeau
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:50pm@ Black…. Exactly – of course many think logistics has something to do with reasoning ability rather than transport / movement of people and materials
Report Post »Individualism
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:24pmthey should also protest over medallion laws.
Report Post »Tri-ox
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:19pmAs Romney found out, it is considered an “INSULT” to speak the truth about the London Olympic games, so, these cabbies should just shut up and sit down.
Everything is fine – KEEP CALM and CARRY ON.
Report Post »Gonzo
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:45pmNo, it’s insulting for a foreigner to speak the truth about the London Olympic games even when he is an epxert and on the mark. It’s a tiny country, like one of our states. When the head of the OOC refused to say the Atlanta games were “the greatest games ever” which was traditional after each Olympics up to that point, people in GA were hacked off even though we knew our Democrat City of Atlanta government had lined their pockets and screwed things up.
Report Post »Stu D. Baker-Hawk
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:12pmSounds like the Brits should’ve hire Romney to iron out these problems.
BTW, I’m REALLY looking forward to a new face in the White House who can ACTUALLY fix things!
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:11pmThe cabbies are working business owners throwing a wrench in the liberal utopia…Good for them. Drive slower please…
Report Post »Snowleopard {gallery of cat folks}
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:06pmCabbies in protest; the people of London should count their blessings, they dont have the various Occupy bands with their ‘no bathing, no hygeine’ policies.
Report Post »RightUnite
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:50pmThey don’t… Unfortunately, they do have the Muslims who shut down roads to do their darn prayer thing. At least we don’t have that here yet.
Report Post »Evomr
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:05pmRomney was right.
Report Post »CatB
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:03pmSounds like a problem that they weren’t prepared for … like Romney said ;-)
Report Post »Baddoggy
Posted on July 27, 2012 at 1:12pmYep, and the Games have not even started LOL
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