CAPITAL NEWS...
PRIVATE HIRE COMPANY TAKES ON UBER WITH SURPRISE SUPERCAR RIDES
A new ride-hailing app called Miwhip is taking on Uber in London. And cus- tomers could end up travelling in a gold supercar. The supercar sur- prise applies once every 100 rides. That means that for every 99 people who call a cab, the 100th will have a McLaren, Lamborghini
or
something similarly exotic turn up. If you’re a loyal solo rider, your 100th trip will also be in a supercar.
That’s around six rides a
year if you’re book- ing a journey twice a day, as we’re sure some hard-working, high-powered Lon- doners do. According to Motor-
ing Research, Mi- whip is looking to capitalise on Lon- don supercar cul- ture. On its fleet are a Lamborghini Aven- tador, Ferrari 488
GTB, Rolls-Royce Ghost, Mercedes G- Class and McLaren 720S – all gold- wrapped. The cars will be located throughout the city, in ‘every London postcode
and
address’. The less exotic members of
the
fleet are Smart cars, although they too are gold-wrapped. If you’re hailing a ride in zone one to another address in zone one, it costs just £5. The company will be taking 15 per cent
commission, which it says is much less than many other ride-hailing apps. Miwhip is hoping to have 10,000 drivers on its books by the
end of next year, with 5,000 existing private hire drivers joining by January. The MiWhip app is available to down- load now.
BLACK CABS BLOCKADE LONDON BRIDGE IN ROW OVER PROPOSED TAXI RESTRICTIONS ON TOOLEY STREET
London’s black cab drivers blockaded London
Bridge
recently on five con- secutive nights over proposed
traffic
restrictions to Too- ley Street. The protest, which began on Monday evening 26 Novem- ber, caused delays to numerous bus routes but drivers vowed to continue with the disruption until black cabs are guaranteed to be allowed to use the same lanes as buses. Angry drivers also blocked the river crossing in both directions during the rush hour caus- ing traffic chaos. They forced road closures and huge
40
backlogs of traffic at both ends of the bridge. 18 bus ser- vices which usually cross the bridge were unable to com- plete their full route with TfL forced into terminating them at other locations. Posters
for the
protest claimed the drivers have been “di s c r imi n a ted” against and that they have suffered “injustice”. However TfL has labelled the move “unnecessary.” Among the plans is a controversial mea- sure to restrict east-bound traffic along Duke Street Hill and Tooley Street to cyclists and buses only.
Black cabs blockaded London Bridge in a row over proposed taxi restrictions on Tooley Street
Grant Davis, chair- man of the London Cab Drivers Club, told the Southwark News: “We’re not having them restrict- ing
practices.
our work It’s an
absolute disgrace, it’s all just a happy- clappy ‘let’s ban the
cabs.’ They’re not only restricting us, they’re restricting our passengers too. Where buses go, taxis should be able to go, too.” Mr Davis
said
blockading traffic was a “blunt instru- ment” but added:
“When you have a licensing authority like TfL who won’t listen, you have to.” Ben Plowden, TfL’s Director of Strategy and Network Devel- opment, said: “A consultation is cur- rently underway on changes to Tooley Street to improve conditions for peo- ple walking and cycling, or travelling by public transport. “The best way for people to let us know what
think about these proposals
is
they to
respond to the con- sultation, so this type of protest is unnecessary. All feedback on our proposals will be thoroughly assessed
and taken into account.” Other
proposed
measures include a 20mph speed limit, introducing a two- metre wide west- bound cycle lane westbound on Duke Street Hill and Too- ley Street, and restricting access from side roads onto Tooley Street to westbound traffic only. A consultation on the ‘interim’ changes will close on January 9 . TfL is working on a larger revamp of the area as part of the CS4 Cycle Superhighway. TfL insists no deci- sion will be made until all responses are considered.
JANUARY 2019
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80
