Bus Lanes

This issue was being debated on the (Radio 4) Today Programme this morning, somewhere between 8am - 8:30am, in case anyone wants to listen again.

Zoe wrote:

Hi Tom, I just read this and wanted to wish you well in your retirement, and also express just a wee bit of jealousy :-)
It's always been useful getting your insight, given how many black taxis there are in SE1. If we'd known you were retiring we would have insisted that you recruit a replacement first!

Thanks for those kind words Zoe, for a cyclist such as yourself to have something nice to say about a Black Cab driver is tantamount to an antelope saying about a lion,
"I know that he chased and ate a few of us, but he was a stand-up cat!"
On a serious note, I always tried to give cyclists a bit of space, the last thing I wanted was scrape marks from some cretin's handlebars.
No need for me to recruit a replacement, there will always be someone who mistakenly believes that we earn a king's ransom, and so will step forth and do the Knowledge.

Addison Lee also ignore one-way streets based on what I saw last night from one of their drivers.

The fact you ask the question why should the knowledge entitle you to use bus lanes in London, it's simple, the London cabbie is recognised throughout the world as the best taxi service in the world, voted year after year, and it's all because of the knowledge, not really about the cab. If you use the black cabs in London regular you will know this as I do.
Just hail a black cab, give him some vague address, he's turned that cab around on a sixpence, and he's off, not hanging around trying to input a post code. And at a cost some times half that of a large mini cab company. On average a London cabbie spends four years studying the knowledge, the vast majority of Londoners and visitors who use London cabs
no only to well the importance of London cabs. Just to remind some people last year 220 reported assaults on women and 53 rapes committed by mini cab touts.

When I was working I was charged £15.00 very early one morning by mini cab when roads were empty to get from my street to canary wharf.... waiting at the bus stop a week later , same time hailed a black cab...fare...£12.00

hailing a black cab in central london at 1am to get home to Sydenham - £30/£35. Minicab from home back to SE1 at 1am - £15

is it a tax on going out in the west end?

I have been out of the game, (absolutely no regrets), for one year now, but I would have hazarded an educated guess at £29- £33, on Rate 3, for a trip from Soho for example to Sydenham at 1.00 a.m.
Of course there has been at least one hike in fares, plus another on the cards, since I waved goodbye to my TX1 and pocketed the cheque, so I would not dream of disputing JonR's upper level of £35.00 for the trip now.
At the same time, 1.00 a.m., on Rate 3, I'd guess at £17.00 - £19.00 for Sydenham to say, Borough Market by black cab.
Of course, W1 to SE26 is further than SE26 to SE1, plus the traffic in the West End at 1.00 a.m. can be worse than Tower Bridge Rd. at rush hour.
To support Jan's post, many was the time that I did jobs from the rank opposite M&S in Tooley St. to Canary Wharf, via Rotherhithe Tunnel.
It would vary, depending on traffic, between £10.00 - £12.00.