Posted on 07/17/2012 12:12:22 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Blaring their horns, the cabbies took their case to Parliament Square, creating gridlock in the heart of the capital. with the jam swiftly spreading to Millbank and Whitehall.
London’s iconic black cabs are being excluded from the 30 miles of games lanes, which have been reserved for Olympic competitors, officials and sponsors.
Dubbed “Zil lanes” by critics, they come into force on Wednesday next week. Drivers who transgress face a £130 fine.
The restrictions will ban drivers from the lanes, making journey times across the capital longer and dearer for passengers.
Many cab drivers have said they will leave London during the Games rather than put up with the frustration of navigating the capital’s traffic.
"There will be no access to these lanes for any traffic apart from the Olympics family.
"Taxis are excluded, which is unacceptable and wrong. This is a working city and we need to get around and do our job," said Jonathan Myers, of the United Cabbies group union.
“We've come to Parliament so MPs can wake up and hear what we're talking about."
Bob Crow, general secretary of the RMT union, which has a number of cab drivers in its membership, said:
“It’s a scandal that a London taxi was used as an iconic London image to secure the games and yet those same cab drivers are now being kicked in the teeth by Olympics chiefs over the VIP lanes and the entire Olympics transport strategy.”
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
“Zil” a horrible Russian excuse for a car used exclusively by Aparatchtiks in the Soviet Union that had the center lane all to themselves.
Watch the difference in the coverage by the network airing the Olympics and the ones that don’t on the Evening News. NBC is Olympic Glory and ABC is all scandal.
Why are the lower classes so eager to worship athletes?
It should be ONLY for the cabs!!! OMG!! How STUPID can this be!!! CABS MOVE the MOST people!!
I’m sure the Olympics in London will be a rousing socialist success.....I think I’d rather eat live worms, freshly dug out of a manure pile, with a dirty fork before I’d even watch the games on TV, let alone braving the TSA perverts, flying cattle cars and the outlandishly expensive and arrogant London.
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