by John Kennedy.

Take a close look at the picture above and notice the buckled wheel on the rickshaw, thank god a Police officer in this instance is taking action against this death trap, these "objects" openly block, hinder impede the movement of traffic within central London most nights of the week, with no impact protection   only the skills of other road users have averted serious injury to naive drunken passengers.

Yet here we are less than four years to go before we host the Olympic games and we have third world rip off transport operating in the Capital ! Time for Transport for London and the Metropolitan Police to get their act together and remove these lethal objects from our streets and roads.

The LTDA and Bob Oddy deserve praise for the long running campaign "ban don't licence" and here at the London Daily News we back you in the London taxi trade on this just cause. Now with a economy slowing we have a window of opportunity to sort London out, taxi availability as never been so good in the City at all times of the day and night, rickshaws are unsafe and a rip off they do nothing to enhance the reputation of a world class business and Olympic City. The time is right to ban rickshaws from the public highways of London and then the United Kingdom.

Now whilst I'm on a roll, (not a Eskimo roll !) have you heard of the latest river taxi service, yes a canoe that will travel up and down the Regent's canal at a cost of £50.00p an hour and travels at a astonishing speed of 4 mph, now a well know travel presenter on a well know radio station was lambasting the taxi trade the other week for the price of a taxi-cab from Heathrow to Knightsbridge. Now the taxi-cab picks you up at the terminal with luggage and whether their is one or five of you the cost is the same oh and you get to your destination without the need of "chav nav" ! By the way the cost he complained about was £50.00p for up to five people, six if you can find a Metro or Vito. Not bad when bench marked against the cost of the Heathrow express, the underground and all the hassle humping luggage about. In fact when you compare the cost of a taxi-cab in London with three to five people travelling by underground or bus we are a bargain day or night !

Remember tell your punters no Oyster card £4.00 per head zone one by underground, £2.00 per head zone one by bus, £50.00p per hour by canoe Regent's canal, the canoe seats one passenger oh remember you do need a canal ! Rickshaw equals a rip off, anything up to five times the price of a taxi-cab. I haven't mentioned the cost of mini-cabs because they do compete with us on a reasonable basis and we shouldn't knock legitimate competition just better them at every twist and turn on the public highway.

Enough of me, look out for London Daily News taxi-cab receipts and spread the word and the web address, we support the finest taxi service on the planet !

photo credit: Picture by Dominic Shannon