Waterloo cars - happenstance or result?

Well done to all those people who complained to TfL's Taxi and Private Hire office about Waterloo Cars's mini-cabs parked on the yellow line and in the mandatory cycle lane on Cycling Superhighway 7. I haven't been that way for a few days but at 09.45 today it looked like this. Fingers crossed for the future.

TfL meet their Waterloo

We all make cock-ups at some point and some may argue for TfL to be cut a bit of slack for assuming, as we cyclists have, that if it looks like a yellow line and a mandatory cycle lane then that's what it is. A quick slap of blue paint over the top and you've got a whizz-bang Cycling Superhighway.

TfL have just apologetically been on the phone to explain that it turns out to have been a faux green cycle lane outside Waterloo Cars on Southwark Bridge Road, so it's now a faux Superhighway.

You see, wardens can't enforce no parking there because in some way or other the old cycle lane wasn't correctly lined and signed, hence neither is the shiny blue one.

Apparently they've been on the case for a while now and promise it'll be resolved soon....

In the meantime, I can't resist the opportunity to invite you to sing the following, maybe replacing Napoleon with Boris in the lyrics

{Waterloo, Waterloo)
(Where will you meet your Waterloo?)
(Every puppy has its day)
(Everybody has to pay)
(Everybody has to meet his Waterloo}


Little General Napoleon of France
Tried to conquer the world but lost his pants**
Met defeat, known as Bonaparte's retreat
And that's where Napoleon met his Waterloo

WATERLOO
(Marijohn Wilkin / John D. Loudermilk)

Waterloo Cars late morning today

Campaign against Waterloo Cars

As always, flouting the parking and traffic orders - just like yesterday.

I suggest readers write to TfL at the link below stating something along the lines of "Please take away Waterloo Cars' Operators Licence on Southwark Bridge Road for blatant transgression of the yellow line and mandatory cycle lane on a daily basis over several years."

If enough of us write in it may just happen. Here's the complaints site.

How do Waterloo Cars get away with it?

I resolved yesterday morning to take a more upbeat approach to this blog. The resolution was shattered by a blasted horn five minutes into my ride mid-morning.

I went northbound, past the blue mini-cab parking zone, on Southwark Bridge Road, unsurprisingly riding my bike on the main part of the highway, before stopping at traffic lights. Looking across the junction the cycle superhighway had a taxi parked in it and a van unloading. So I kept my road position across the junction to ride on the road, adjacent to the blue parking zone, only to get a blast of the horn from a dumper truck's moronic driver behind me presumably for having the gall to be in his way rather than ploughing into the back of the obstructions.

Time for another photo of Waterloo Cars mini-cabs obstructing the mandatory cycle lane parked on a single yellow line and an attempt to find out if anything is being done about it. I phoned Southwark Council and a highway planner told me the yellow line applied from 08.30 - 17.30 Mon-Fri; that the mandatory cycle lane would certainly have the same hours; that it was a parking offence to park and a traffic offence to enter the cycle lane. He advised that both offences were decriminalised and Southwark was the enforcing agency but that they don't take action against the traffic offence of entering the cycle lane. 5 minutes observation would be the minimum normal observation period for a warden to confirm that someone was parked rather than loading/unloading.

Even though it is a cycling superhighway, as it is a borough road TfL don't have any enforcement powers. Except, that "Any person who operates private hire vehicles in the London area must be licensed by Transport for London (TfL)." so please TfL, can you take Waterloo Cars' licence away. (The relevant TfL department has just moved in Palestra on Blackfriars Road so are around the corner if they want to check for themselves).

Meanwhile, the next stop is the Head of Southwark's Parking Enforcement to see what is going wrong with their enforcement.

TfL yet to lick Ice Cream vendors or Waterloo Cars

Last Friday was a damp, autumnal day - but not something to deter the illegal traders on the red route/bus lane/cycle lane on Westminster Bridge. I'd been noticing them continue to trade over the previous several days and so it was time for another quick photo.

And, given the abject failure by Transparking for London to block these organised criminals, I thought I'd better have a look at the new Superficial Highway which was always parked on by Waterloo Cars when it was a green cycle route, and now it's blue... it's still always parked on by the LICENSED minicab drivers.


The two pedal police I spoke to who were lurking by the junction today told me they were there to catch cyclists jumping the red lights and, of course, parking by 'professional' drivers in a mandatory cycle lane on a yellow line was not the sort of crime that concerned them.