Sunday, April 22, 2012

Addison Lee on Cyclists

I wasn't that surprised to hear recently of Addison Lee head John Griffin's opinions on cyclists, after I had my own run in with one of their drivers in August 2010. At the time I wrote the following complaint, I heard nothing in reply.
Sir/Madam,

I was cycling home on Friday night/Saturday morning and encountered one of your drivers just before 1:30am at the junction of Abbeville Road and Trouville Road. He slowly cut across my path and seemed to stop in the junction. I wasn't particularly bothered and cycled around him onto Trouville Road and then turned into my house. As I was unlocking my front door the same minicab drew up and the driver shouted "Next time I'm going to beat you motherfucker!"

After driving down the street the minicab turned round and I walked out into the street to see what he wanted. He continued to shout at me for not having stopped for him. I explained that it was my right of way but he said that "that doesn't matter". He then drove off and I took a picture of the back of his cab using my mobile phone.

Considering that I was at my front door, ie, he knows where I live, I take his threat very seriously and would like your assurance that he will not come back and "beat me". I would also like to know what measures you are going to take to make sure that he does not threaten someone else who may be less able to defend him/herself than a 30 year old 6 foot male. I do not know how seriously the police will take a single threat of this nature, but considering all the information I have it surely would not take much to trace the driver.

I would describe the driver as 40ish, with lank greasy hair, tanned completion and a fairly thick, possibly Spanish accent.

Looking forward to your reply, Jamie Kitson

3 comments:

citizen kane said...

so if you took a picture of the car why didn't you supply that picture to the company? I am sure the number plate details would have been pictured. And if you say 30 an 6ft tall, why didn't you take him up on the he fight?

Jamie said...

Unfortunately I was kind of bluffing, I did take a picture, but the flash came on and over exposed the number plate. And I'm not a fighty kind of guy.

Clare said...

Shocking behaviour from the driver (I found this blog through Guardian Online), though unfortunately not very surprising. And I entirely disagree with "citizen kane"- no matter what your stature, there's no point getting in a fight with a macho taxi man over whose right of way it was!

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