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Why do we need so many Street Signs?

Why do we need so many street signs? Do you ever ask yourself this question? I know I do. Street signs are meant to help us; but the staggering array of signs one meets on the road nowadays beggars belief. How to get to this church, that library, no HGV's, Cyclists and pedestrians only; the list goes on. The sad thing is there are 24 million vehicles on our roads and we need to concentrate now more than ever; but we are being bombarded everywhere with street signs. The amount of risk in trying to read these signs is quite considerable; every second our eyes are off the road, the greater the chance of an accident. The government and local councils could make our roads safer by getting rid of all this superfluous signing and reducing the amount of distraction for drivers. It is bad enough trying to avoid other vehicles on the road without the additional burden of the drivers not looking at the road properly. Lets get rid of the signs and in doing so make our roads safer.

But if you really want to read the signs; why not do it from the back of a taxi? Go to LastMinuteCabs.com and register now; in less than 5 minutes we could be saving you money on that next trip by cab. Whether you are travelling from Bath to Birchington or Canterbury to Cheltenham we at LastMinuteCabs.com are confident we can find you a lower fare; register now.

Smoking Drivers Could Face Prosecution

Smoking in your car could lead to a prosecution; changes in the Highway Code makes it possible to be charged with 'driving without due care and attention'. Driving requires concentration on the part of the driver and anything that causes distraction is considered taboo. In the first update of the highway code for 8 years; which is 42 pages longer and has 29 new rules, includes a new safety code for novice drivers. If you are lighting a cigarette whilst driving you cannot have both hands on the steering wheel and therefore not in full control of the vehicle. The other problems range from smoke in your eyes, dropping the cigarette on your person or in the car and having a coughing fit induced by smoking. Dropping a cigarette is probably the most dangerous as it will cause an immediate distraction whilst the driver looks for it. In the 21st century anyone with any sense wouldn't smoke.

Better still go by taxi; changes in the law makes it illegal to smoke in a taxi or private hire vehicle as both are workplaces. Whether you want to travel from Bath in the West or Faversham and Canterbury in the East; LastMinuteCabs.com is confident we can find you a lower fare. Go to our site LastMinuteCabs.com and register now; in less than 5 minutes we could be saving you money on that next trip to the airport, city or docks.

Airport Car Parking Charges

The main airports around London have big differences in the amounts they charge for Car Parking. The cheapest is Gatwick Airport where you can get 15 minutes in the short stay car park for £1.00 (both North & South Terminals) or 30 minutes for £2.40; London Heathrow T1,T2,T3 30 minutes costs £2.30; London Luton 15 minutes is £2.50 and 30 minutes for £4.00; Stansted in the main short stay car park it is £1.50 for 30 minutes; London City is £6.50 for up to 1 hour in the adjacent car park or £4.50 in the main car park. All these prices climb steeply the longer you stay. With current security measures being operated at all the airports it makes sense not to go into the car parks early. The average time after landing to collecting your baggage and clearing immigration is 45 minutes; so if you go into the car park at the time the plane lands you will be guaranteed a minimum 45 minutes dead time and extra profits for the Car Park Operators.

Better still get a professional taxi to meet you at the airport, go to LastMinuteCabs.com and register now; in less than 5 minutes you could be saving money on that next trip to the airport too. Whether you travel from Falmouth to Canterbury or Faversham to Cardiff we are positive we can find you a cheaper fare.

Dogs in Cars

Whilst driving recently I have noticed on a number of occasions drivers with dogs running loose in their cars. They are often on the rear parcel shelf pacing up and down from side to side blocking the rear window. This is an extremely dangerous practice as the animal obstructs the rear view mirror of the driver; making it nearly impossible for the driver to see clearly what is behind them. The other cause for concern is that in an impact the dog may be thrown forward either through the windscreen or into the other occupants of the vehicle causing severe injury. It would make sense to have the animal or animals tethered in some way to the vehicle; this would avoid them causing injury to themselves or others in an accident. If it makes sense for drivers and passengers to wear seat belts then the same must be true for dogs or other animals.

Going to the airport, city or docks? Get a cheaper taxi at LastMinuteCabs.com, go to our website and register now; in less than 5 minutes we could be saving you money on your next trip by cab. From Faversham to Falmouth or Canterbury to Cardiff we are confident we can find you a lower fare.

London Cabs to have Twice Yearly Safety Inspections

London Black Cabs will have to have twice yearly safety inspections; this will bring them into line with Private Hire vehicles which already have two checks per year. The PCO announced the changes on 22nd August 2007, all taxis licensed from 2nd April 2007 will have to undergo a mid year safety check. The PCO sets out the parameters of the inspection regime and sets out which components are to be tested and how. This is a significant change in the way Hackney Carriage vehicles are tested and will affect 20,000 vehicles in the capital. The number of licensing authorities still requiring only one test per year are few and far between. This is all good news for the passengers as it means that unsafe vehicles are taken off the road.

All the taxis we use are fully licensed and undergo regular safety checks. Go to LastMinutecabs.com and see if we can find you a cheaper taxi too; it doesn't matter where you are travelling to or from, it could be Canterbury to Cheltenham or Broadstairs to Bath, we are confident we can find you a cheaper fare. Register now.

Let's make Cycling Safer

Government keeps going on about 'Climate Change' and 'Global Warming' and wanting us to reduce CO2 emissions. One positive way would be to make cycling safer, currently cyclists have to run the gauntlet of our roads with all the vehicles using them. It would make sense to separate the two; vehicles and cycles don't mix, cyclists are very vulnerable too severe injury or death if hit by a car or truck. The current practise of having cycle lanes on busy roads is dangerous; a one metre strip is not much room when being passed by fast moving vehicles. It would be better to either build designated cycle routes away from the traffic or to classify some roads as cyclist and resident access only. This way we can encourage more people to leave their cars at home and get fitter in the process.

If you are going to the airport get a cheaper taxi through LastMinuteCabs.com; whether you are travelling from Bristol, Bath or Cheltenham we are confident we can find you a lower fare. Go to LastMinuteCabs.com and register now; in less than 5 minutes we could be saving you money too.

Caught in a speed check doing 172mph

The fastest driver ever caught in a routine speed check in the UK has been sentenced to 10 weeks in jail.

 

Timothy Brady, 33, pleaded guilty at Oxford Crown Court to dangerous driving. Brady was clocked at 172mph in a Porsche 911 Turbo in a 70mph zone on the A420 in Oxfordshire on 27 January. He was banned from driving for three years and will have to take an extended driving test to get another licence. He denied another charge of aggravated vehicle taking. The court heard Brady had taken the Porsche from luxury car hire firm Helphire, where he worked as a delivery driver. He had nagged his boss to let him drive the sports car and had been repeatedly told no, but the court heard Brady took the car out the next day.

Judge David Morton Jack said to Brady in court: "Your driving was criminally self-indulgent and utterly thoughtless of the danger you might be creating for the innocent."

Police have criticised Brady for travelling at such high speed. Insp Martin Percival, of Thames Valley Police, said: "All road users share a great responsibility to others and need to realise that high speed increases the chance of failing to react to an emergency, let alone take sufficient action to resolve it." Insp Percival said the 172mph speed equated to 77m per second. "To put that into context, the average duration of a single blink of the eye is 0.3 seconds, during which time the car would have travelled 23m (five car lengths)."

A spokesman for the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (Rospa) said: "This was an absolutely terrifying piece of driving.”Our roads are not race tracks or for breaking speed records. "It is fortunate the police were there to take action before he ended up killing himself or someone else. According to the BBC news website .

Our taxis don't go that fast; get a cheaper taxi to the airport, city or docks whether you are travelling from Bath, Canterbury or Dartford. Go to LastMinuteCabs.com and register now.

Extra Points with Speeding Ticket

From Monday 24th September if you get caught speeding you could end up with 6 points instead of 3 points. A change in the law means that you cannot refuse to disclose who was driving your vehicle at the time of the offence. The only exception being if your vehicle was stolen. The government are getting tough on drivers who try to evade points on their licence when caught speeding by denying they were the driver. From Monday if you do not disclose who was driving you will end up with 6 points plus the fine. It means basically that you are guilty unless you can prove otherwise; a subtle shift is taking place in this and a number of other laws. the old premise that you were innocent until proven guilty no longer stands. Government is eroding our civil liberties at every opportunity; it would appear that the long term goal is to have us like robots, we have more 'big brother' than a lot of the old communist states had. It is up to all of us to defend our freedoms and liberty.

But if you'd rather not take the risk; get a LastMinuteCab from LastMinuteCabs.com and let us worry about the speeding tickets. It doesn't matter if you are going from Cardiff to Canterbury or Bath to Broadstairs we feel confident we can  find you a cheaper fare. Register now.

Drink Driving is back again

Drink driving is on the increase especially amongst younger drivers. Margate sea front is a classic example with a number of pubs and clubs in a 400 metre stretch; after 7pm the seafront is parked both sides with cars. These are parked on double yellow lines, taxi ranks, bus stops and zigzags on the pedestrian crossings. These cars are there until the early hours of the following morning; it would be quite impressive to see the local police

a) Enforce the parking regulations (sorry not their job any more)

b) Stop and breathalyse these drivers returning to their cars (sorry they are too busy).

It seems strange that Parliament passes Acts into law and the police decide which ones they can be bothered to enforce.

Here is a snippet from the BBC News website: -

Girl, 17, killed in car accident

A 17-year-old girl has died and five other people were seriously injured in a car crash in West Yorkshire. The teenager was in a Ford Focus which was in collision with a Renault Laguna on the A58 at Drighlington on Friday. Three Leeds men in the Focus, all in their 20s, and a couple in the Laguna, aged in their late 40s, are all in hospital with serious injuries. A 29-year-old Leeds man was arrested on suspicion of causing death by dangerous driving and driving over the limit.

It would appear the risk of being caught is slim; we need more police action now to nip this in the bud.

Better still get a licensed professional Taxi driven by a licensed professional driver to take you home; or if you are going further afield go to LastMinuteCabs.com and see if we can find you a cheaper fare on your next trip. It doesn't matter if you are travelling from Broadstairs to Bristol or Canterbury to Cardiff go to LastMinuteCabs.com and register now; in less than 5 minutes we could be saving you money on that next trip by taxi.

Have you thought about LPG for your vehicle?

LPG is a cheaper alternative to petrol, retailing at about 50% of the cost of petrol and diesel it will probably save the motorist up to 40% per year on fuel bills. The additional benefits are 17% less CO2 emissions than petrol engines, 2% less than diesel; 50% less NOx than petrol and 20 times less than diesel engines; 120 times less particles than diesel engines. With a conversion cost in the region of £1800 it would take 2.5 years to get your money back; this assumes an annual mileage of 15,000. Most LPG vehicles are dual fuel they can run on LPG or petrol; this means there is no problem of running out of fuel. BP has over 170 outlets supplying LPG, Shell currently has 1in 5 of it's petrol stations offering LPG and the network is growing all the time. There are approximately 5.5 million vehicles using LPG fuel across Europe with many governments providing incentives to promote this environmentally friendly fuel.

Another environmentally friendly way of going to the airport is to use a taxi that is already on the road, either going or returning empty. Go to LastMinuteCabs.com and register now; in less than five minutes we could be saving you money too, whether its an airport transfer or a trip to the city LastMinuteCabs.com is the place to look.