As a cyclist who also gets shouted at by cabbies, I have every sympathy with Boris Johnson in his lively exchange with a heckling taxi driver (Report, 18 June). Of course, it is also possible to have sympathy with the cab drivers, who feel let down by the London mayor’s lack of enforcement against illegal minicab touting. I love black cabs and rely on them to get me home from late-night meetings. I often get heckled – “You cyclists never obey the law” – when I am sat at red lights. Now after Operation Safeway, most cyclists are sat there with me. By contrast, in the past two weeks, I’ve seen two cabs jump red lights. I’m left wondering if the old-fashioned pride that cabbies once quite rightly took in their jobs has turned to arrogance about their being the only people on the roads who really understand conditions? If so, Transport for London and the Met have some serious educating to do.
Jenny Jones AM
Green party group, London assembly
