I was a bike courier in London for most of my 20's. I had the "knowledge" almost down and wanted to be a black cab driver. Life changes and today im a lorry driver in the US. Still cant lose the feeling i wanted to be a black cab driver. All the best to you, and keep up the great work!
Really enjoyed this one, Tom. My sat nav recently took me (unexpectedly) from south london to northwest london thru Hyde Park Corner at 8pm and I will admit I had a bit of a panic. The way you allow novice drivers to do their thing to keep the traffic flowing is admirable!
That looks easy. Try Hanger Lane gyratory! Coming off Tywford Abbey Rd you have to cut across 8 lanes in less than 100 metres to get in the right lane to go eastbound on the north circular 😧
Hangar lane is only difficult from Twyford abbey rd if you need to cut across to head west or north. Other than that it’s piss easy from every direction. Road signs and markings are clear but unfortunately you have absolute idiots also driving who can’t follow signs and have awful lane discipline.
As A learner Driver in 1985 living in Walworth my Driving instructor used to take me over the water to Hyde Park Corner - Marble arch loop. He's Thinking was if you can drive here you can drive in any city. He has been proved right as I have driven in Paris, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Fran Cisco & Peckham lol
Hi Tom so the ambulance lights is an old wives tale.. basically the reason they might have the lights but no siren is because to minimise the stress of the patient and to a lesser extent the ambulance crews. It means they have a patient on board but the patient is stable but requires hospital treatment :)
Ambulences basically use sirens when they wan't you to make space for them or doing something unusuall these days, otherwise there still on an emergency but feel there best to just stay in normal traffic flow for now.
Probably an unpopular opinion - but I don't see why it's such a bad thing for Park Lane to be 20mph. Even if it's higher you end up getting stuck before the roundabout anyway and you don't save any time - but in return, everyone should have more reaction time for random things to happen and makes things safer for everyone - including those who keep switching lanes trying to save half a second.
Tom the problem with Kensington and Chelsea is they don't have zones for their residents permits so anyone with a Kensington and Chelsea permit can park anywhere in Kensington and Chelsea. You will find a lot of residents from the North Kensington and Notting Hill area parking in around South Kensington Knightsbridge Sloane Square and Chelsea either going shopping or working in and around the area. That's why the resident bays are always full around that area. If it was zoned like all the other boroughs I think traffic would reduce dramatically in the area.
I used to be a driving instructor and had an older lady who had had a large number of lessons and test failures assigned to me. We started off from Tooting on a 2 hr. Lesson. All seemed well in the roads there so I guided her up to the centre area and took in Marble Arch and Hyde Park corner round abouts (no road markings at that time) Marble Arch was OK but at HPC she strayed a bit so I gently pulled on the wheel she quickly and sharply told me “I’ve got it.” It was successful and we made our way back to Tooting. There she told me all her lessons had been on a Sunday! With me she had a few weekday lessons and passed her test with no problems. As a youngster we would cycle around Marble Arch and down Park Lane and on to HPC when the road layout was quite new, great fun.
Yeah, that's definitely an old wives' tale about an ambulance on just blues having a body on board. They are trained to ditch the sirens if the traffic situation is such that the insistence of the sirens would pressure other drivers into doing stupid or illegal things. So they will, for example, ditch the sirens on a stretch with solid white lines in the centre of the road (other drivers can't stop or move out of the way and the ambulance doesn't have an exemption that allows them to ignore those white lines) or at red traffic lights if other drivers can't clear a path without illegally crossing the stop line.
Hi Tom I drive to the Royal Overseas League from north Essex, alternatively drive to Epping and go to Green Park, its quicker by car dieect, the 20 MPH actually helps me as I have time to navigate not being pushed along by traffic.
I come up to London on a Sunday a few times a year with my eldest lad who is super car mad. Bonus is free parking all day (often in Mount street). I have negotiated Hyde park corner a great many times , and it’s always been very fruity getting round. That looked quite tame with the amount of traffic going round. One thing I’ve learnt is to ignore the beeping horns and not take them personally😂
Im a London driver of 14 years. It took me a few years of anger, but this is how I drive now. Let the inexperienced do what they do, and keep your wits about you. 👍🏻
Every other direction is fine there. What is a bit difficult is coming from Belgrave square onto Duke of wellington, which I had to do often when I did dry cleaning deliveries.
I never had a problem on Hyde Park Corner, I knew it well and the general flow around it. I usually only used it to nip in the Belgrave Square. The only place my heat sank when i needed to go to Cov Garden or just off the CG.
Monday I entered HPC from Belgrave Square to go down Constitution Hill only to find they had just closed it, so around again to Piccadilly, along with everyone else who had driven past Piccadilly.
Turning off Haley Road onto the A41 slip road, then right onto the North Circular via the Brent Cross roundabout? Hyde Park Corner a lot easier. Mind you, that's not exactly the centre of town, so perhaps not a fair comment. Tom's vids are ace though.
Thanks. Watched last night and just now got a job from the Langham to the Berkeley. Uncanny. Couldn't agree more about hanging back and taking it easy. Help the traffic move. Please can we have have a movie next on how to make the left turn onto Bridge Street from Parliament Street?
The thing about ambulances turning the siren off and leaving lights on when there's a dead body onboard is a load of crap if they had someone onboard who had a DNR and they died then they'd just turn everything off and drive normally. Most other times they have someone in cardiac arrest onboard they'd be doing what they can to get to hospital quicker because they'll still be a chance they can be saved but that chance is decressing by the second. They'll sit in traffic without sirens but with lights going to not bully traffic to break the law like going through a red light to make room or they have just forgotten to turn them off.
0:26 As seen here in the start, how do you handle this if for example you wanted to join the back of the rank as well? You waved him through to do a U-turn but essentially he jumps the queue ahead of you.
Top notch stuff Tom, more of this please! I realise it's probably a controversial subject, but I'd be curious to see a video about the various cabbie orgs. How would a newbie choose one? What's the difference? What do they each offer?
hyde park corner is wacky races, swiss cottage is good too..people that design these type of junctions must think that london drivers are friendly and cooperative or something, a few months back i saw a novice trying to exit grovsner crescent in a really nice merc, they were taking their time (the light sequences mean there's only small windows of opportunity for exiting from here) they were getting honked by all the people behind...this made them come out at the wrong time and get full smacked by a double decker bus heading for the knightsbridge exit....spun them round 360 degrees and left them on the pavement totalled and stunned..
From watching ambulance shift videos, they generally won't put sirens on if the traffic in front of them has nowhere to safely move out of the way Putting the sirens on makes people feel like they have to act, but on congested roads like the one you met it, that would create total chaos, and probably cause multiple crashes
As said below ambulances and other emergency vehicles drop the sirens as they trained not to force others to break the law or cause panic. If a cop car gestures for you to move forward through a red light then this is legal as you acting under the direction of a constable. The times I have been bossed around by the police outriders in London. They once forced my bus over to let Berlusconi past, at least he waved at us lol ( I was driving a tour bus ).
Really interesting more on common traffic challenges would be worthwhile. I quite often drive home past Harrods going west and the overspill from Hans Crescent/Road (?) is daunting if you aren't a professional.
This doesn't look to bad tbh, I thought it was going to be more difficult, looks pretty similar or easier than some other major city , especially when using a satnav and going to a new area they just don't give the correct information.
Did you film that today ? I went down Hans Road about 4pm today and saw that 1CEO special in exactly the same parking place, , I think Clive Sutton cars build them, I did not know Kaan did them as well.
10:12 normally it's just they have judged there is traffic and they feel panicking people isn't going to help. But I'm sure also like you say it's a compliance thing and they have justified it not needed
Course, shutting S. Carriage Drive hasn't helped, either. You could cut down on Edinburgh Gate amd work yourself in that way. Likewise if you were heading northbound onto Park Lane from Brompton Road or Kensignton Gore.
Park Lane Southbound should not be 20mph, the traffic moves faster because its natural. The northbound section needs to ne studied as how Sadiq Khan and TFL have increased congestion is ridiculous.
To drive in London you really need a good driving experience. Even with 18 years experience sometimes I find myself in situations where I’m stationed in the wrong lane etc. TfL have really screwed up London, someone please tell me why the A40 west way is still 30mph
If a Ambulance is approaching Red lights they cannot use their siren to force you though a Red light. Its illegal for any vehicle to go though a Red light and you will be find if you do. On a jammed Red light the Ambulance can and will just seat there with their Blues going. They of course go though a Red light either side of the road as long has it is safe. If a non emergency vehicle follows and blue and twos Ambulance, then expect a at lease a long chat with a copper.
Tom do you have a business card or number or something you could share? I’m sure people would be gagging to have you drive a booked appointment on the odd occasion!!!
I saw motorbikes with massively excessive speed, cars stopped on double red, cars stopped in yellow boxes. He even mentioned multiple people breaking the speed limit whether you agree with the limit or not. Multiple cars going through Red lights. I saw two cyclists at the beginning, both waited at the red light and behaved perfectly legally. And a city absolutely CHOKED by the volume of cars but you have found a way to complain about not even the subject of the video .. I think you have a problem.
@@user-iv5tq4qk7m Buddy, I travel to London three days a week. I see cyclists all the god dam time. Cutting off cars, ambulances and knocking people over. Thats what my comment was about. A comment does not have to be in line within what is shown in a video, but people's suggestions and creating a conversation is the best way to describe a comment. Besides, every comment helps the upload and its creators, no matter what its about. Your the one with the problem, not able to distinguish between what you saw and what people think.
Quite shocked at you (and other road users) merging in front of the ambulance and no one making effort to move left just before Harrods. The only reason they didn’t have sirens as there was no room to pass (the did when able to). Poor show
I was a bike courier in London for most of my 20's. I had the "knowledge" almost down and wanted to be a black cab driver. Life changes and today im a lorry driver in the US. Still cant lose the feeling i wanted to be a black cab driver. All the best to you, and keep up the great work!
Tom if you don’t feel comfortable doing shift videos for the reasons you’ve explained, please do more of this as it’s just as much fun to watch 😊
What reason did he give?
@@smashyrashy there were possible issues with TFL in filming with passengers.
He did a video explaining why he wouldn’t be doing any more shift videos
@@ebismusic8813fine on marks taxi diaries
😍😍😍😍😍😍😍🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰🥰❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️🌹🌹🌹🌹🌹🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦🇨🇦
@@smashyrashyit’s hard when you are a licenced TfL driver
Enjoyed watching this one Tom. As much as I love a shift video, I value the deep dive into the inner workings of black cabs & really enjoyed this too.
Really enjoyed this one, Tom. My sat nav recently took me (unexpectedly) from south london to northwest london thru Hyde Park Corner at 8pm and I will admit I had a bit of a panic. The way you allow novice drivers to do their thing to keep the traffic flowing is admirable!
I’d say expected given he’s a professional driver and knows the flow.
That looks easy. Try Hanger Lane gyratory! Coming off Tywford Abbey Rd you have to cut across 8 lanes in less than 100 metres to get in the right lane to go eastbound on the north circular 😧
I was gonna say . HPC is pisseasy compared to Hanger Lane.
Hangar lane is only difficult from Twyford abbey rd if you need to cut across to head west or north. Other than that it’s piss easy from every direction. Road signs and markings are clear but unfortunately you have absolute idiots also driving who can’t follow signs and have awful lane discipline.
@@seanp5614 yup! It's the idiots that make most junctions hard! 😂
It's great to have your cool and professional head narrating that traffic-heavy journey, Tom!
As A learner Driver in 1985 living in Walworth my Driving instructor used to take me over the water to Hyde Park Corner - Marble arch loop. He's Thinking was if you can drive here you can drive in any city. He has been proved right as I have driven in Paris, Detroit, Los Angeles, San Fran Cisco & Peckham lol
🤣🤣once you can drive in Peckham, you can drive anywhere in the world
Hi Tom so the ambulance lights is an old wives tale.. basically the reason they might have the lights but no siren is because to minimise the stress of the patient and to a lesser extent the ambulance crews. It means they have a patient on board but the patient is stable but requires hospital treatment :)
Ambulences basically use sirens when they wan't you to make space for them or doing something unusuall these days, otherwise there still on an emergency but feel there best to just stay in normal traffic flow for now.
2:19 some glorioius shots of the Park Lane favela, which westminster council have refused to acknowledge.
lol I was just going to comment tent city
Probably an unpopular opinion - but I don't see why it's such a bad thing for Park Lane to be 20mph. Even if it's higher you end up getting stuck before the roundabout anyway and you don't save any time - but in return, everyone should have more reaction time for random things to happen and makes things safer for everyone - including those who keep switching lanes trying to save half a second.
you are correct. people just need to accept that in the interest of safety, driving along park lane takes slightly longer than it used to.
You pulled over to let the ambulance past then you over took it again 😂😂
Tom the problem with Kensington and Chelsea is they don't have zones for their residents permits so anyone with a Kensington and Chelsea permit can park anywhere in Kensington and Chelsea. You will find a lot of residents from the North Kensington and Notting Hill area parking in around South Kensington Knightsbridge Sloane Square and Chelsea either going shopping or working in and around the area. That's why the resident bays are always full around that area. If it was zoned like all the other boroughs I think traffic would reduce dramatically in the area.
I used to be a driving instructor and had an older lady who had had a large number of lessons and test failures assigned to me. We started off from Tooting on a 2 hr. Lesson. All seemed well in the roads there so I guided her up to the centre area and took in Marble Arch and Hyde Park corner round abouts (no road markings at that time) Marble Arch was OK but at HPC she strayed a bit so I gently pulled on the wheel she quickly and sharply told me “I’ve got it.” It was successful and we made our way back to Tooting. There she told me all her lessons had been on a Sunday! With me she had a few weekday lessons and passed her test with no problems.
As a youngster we would cycle around Marble Arch and down Park Lane and on to HPC when the road layout was quite new, great fun.
Really enjoyabe video Tom, you should do more of these :)
I love the background music 😂
Yeah, that's definitely an old wives' tale about an ambulance on just blues having a body on board. They are trained to ditch the sirens if the traffic situation is such that the insistence of the sirens would pressure other drivers into doing stupid or illegal things. So they will, for example, ditch the sirens on a stretch with solid white lines in the centre of the road (other drivers can't stop or move out of the way and the ambulance doesn't have an exemption that allows them to ignore those white lines) or at red traffic lights if other drivers can't clear a path without illegally crossing the stop line.
Tom , your viewing figures would show you have a considerable number of passengers on board. Love your commentaries and content.
This is great Tom. I finally thought I'd got this right last week and then Kier Starmer's motorcade cut across and sent the whole thing bolo 😭
Love your videos. In my opinion, the worst are the ones that have been "upgraded" such as the Elephant & Castle and Lewisham one way systems.
14:41 - 'J Boss' number plate. So cool!!
duke of wellington house is named number 1 london, so any letter you send with that address even without a postcode will go to that address.
Hi Tom I drive to the Royal Overseas League from north Essex, alternatively drive to Epping and go to Green Park, its quicker by car dieect, the 20 MPH actually helps me as I have time to navigate not being pushed along by traffic.
This is great - you can even do one without speaking and that will allow me to watch the video and work at the same time.
I come up to London on a Sunday a few times a year with my eldest lad who is super car mad. Bonus is free parking all day (often in Mount street). I have negotiated Hyde park corner a great many times , and it’s always been very fruity getting round. That looked quite tame with the amount of traffic going round. One thing I’ve learnt is to ignore the beeping horns and not take them personally😂
Im a London driver of 14 years. It took me a few years of anger, but this is how I drive now. Let the inexperienced do what they do, and keep your wits about you. 👍🏻
Every other direction is fine there. What is a bit difficult is coming from Belgrave square onto Duke of wellington, which I had to do often when I did dry cleaning deliveries.
Hangar Lane is much worse than Hyde Park Corner 😂😂😂😂
I never had a problem on Hyde Park Corner, I knew it well and the general flow around it. I usually only used it to nip in the Belgrave Square. The only place my heat sank when i needed to go to Cov Garden or just off the CG.
Monday I entered HPC from Belgrave Square to go down Constitution Hill only to find they had just closed it, so around again to Piccadilly, along with everyone else who had driven past Piccadilly.
Wellington’s house! No 1 London if my memoriesserve me correctly.
Tom's been in the picalo cafe recognise the black paper tea cup😅😅😅😅😅
Blimey Tom if only all drivers were as calm and professional as you, driving in cities would be so much easier.
Turning off Haley Road onto the A41 slip road, then right onto the North Circular via the Brent Cross roundabout? Hyde Park Corner a lot easier. Mind you, that's not exactly the centre of town, so perhaps not a fair comment. Tom's vids are ace though.
Thanks. Watched last night and just now got a job from the Langham to the Berkeley. Uncanny. Couldn't agree more about hanging back and taking it easy. Help the traffic move. Please can we have have a movie next on how to make the left turn onto Bridge Street from Parliament Street?
Love this video. Haven’t driven in London for some years so this is useful for trip that’s coming up.👍
Hahahaha Hardest Junction in London, I needed a laugh today
Ok, that was fun. Keep on. 😊
The thing about ambulances turning the siren off and leaving lights on when there's a dead body onboard is a load of crap if they had someone onboard who had a DNR and they died then they'd just turn everything off and drive normally. Most other times they have someone in cardiac arrest onboard they'd be doing what they can to get to hospital quicker because they'll still be a chance they can be saved but that chance is decressing by the second. They'll sit in traffic without sirens but with lights going to not bully traffic to break the law like going through a red light to make room or they have just forgotten to turn them off.
0:26 As seen here in the start, how do you handle this if for example you wanted to join the back of the rank as well? You waved him through to do a U-turn but essentially he jumps the queue ahead of you.
Generally if I wanted to join the rank, I have right of way and would go first and he would join behind. I.e. I wouldn’t give way to them.
Top notch stuff Tom, more of this please!
I realise it's probably a controversial subject, but I'd be curious to see a video about the various cabbie orgs. How would a newbie choose one? What's the difference? What do they each offer?
hyde park corner is wacky races, swiss cottage is good too..people that design these type of junctions must think that london drivers are friendly and cooperative or something, a few months back i saw a novice trying to exit grovsner crescent in a really nice merc, they were taking their time (the light sequences mean there's only small windows of opportunity for exiting from here) they were getting honked by all the people behind...this made them come out at the wrong time and get full smacked by a double decker bus heading for the knightsbridge exit....spun them round 360 degrees and left them on the pavement totalled and stunned..
03:05 are motorbikes able to use the bus lanes too?
Yes but not all of them 👍🏻
It used to be on my commute home every day - as a lot of fun on a motorbike :)
From watching ambulance shift videos, they generally won't put sirens on if the traffic in front of them has nowhere to safely move out of the way
Putting the sirens on makes people feel like they have to act, but on congested roads like the one you met it, that would create total chaos, and probably cause multiple crashes
The 'AF' bus you passed at park lane is a Putney bus garage bus so it is a 74 Baker street to Putney high street
As said below ambulances and other emergency vehicles drop the sirens as they trained not to force others to break the law or cause panic. If a cop car gestures for you to move forward through a red light then this is legal as you acting under the direction of a constable. The times I have been bossed around by the police outriders in London. They once forced my bus over to let Berlusconi past, at least he waved at us lol ( I was driving a tour bus ).
Really interesting more on common traffic challenges would be worthwhile. I quite often drive home past Harrods going west and the overspill from Hans Crescent/Road (?) is daunting if you aren't a professional.
13:10 All kicking off at Harrods lol
Thank you foe sharing.
12:48 in and out wow motorcycle guy in a hurry 😱😅 hope he doesn’t cause trouble
That's an easy junction compared to the hardest junction in Paris, place de l'étoile, I dare Tom to drive and film his drive there :)
This doesn't look to bad tbh, I thought it was going to be more difficult, looks pretty similar or easier than some other major city , especially when using a satnav and going to a new area they just don't give the correct information.
Did you film that today ? I went down Hans Road about 4pm today and saw that 1CEO special in exactly the same parking place, , I think Clive Sutton cars build them, I did not know Kaan did them as well.
10:12 normally it's just they have judged there is traffic and they feel panicking people isn't going to help. But I'm sure also like you say it's a compliance thing and they have justified it not needed
Noticed your cab has no charge but full tank😅
Dare you to do what no black cab has ever done before.... go to South London. 😂
Is that Fela Kuti in the stereo?
Course, shutting S. Carriage Drive hasn't helped, either. You could cut down on Edinburgh Gate amd work yourself in that way. Likewise if you were heading northbound onto Park Lane from Brompton Road or Kensignton Gore.
Park Lane Southbound should not be 20mph, the traffic moves faster because its natural. The northbound section needs to ne studied as how Sadiq Khan and TFL have increased congestion is ridiculous.
I tend to drift my lanes around HPC, no sudden jerks of the steering wheel. Obviously the key is knowing your exit.
So same as for any junction anywhere then?!
To drive in London you really need a good driving experience. Even with 18 years experience sometimes I find myself in situations where I’m stationed in the wrong lane etc. TfL have really screwed up London, someone please tell me why the A40 west way is still 30mph
If a Ambulance is approaching Red lights they cannot use their siren to force you though a Red light. Its illegal for any vehicle to go though a Red light and you will be find if you do. On a jammed Red light the Ambulance can and will just seat there with their Blues going. They of course go though a Red light either side of the road as long has it is safe. If a non emergency vehicle follows and blue and twos Ambulance, then expect a at lease a long chat with a copper.
Couldn't make out the watch - looks nice?
Thanks, it’s just a Seiko Solar, can’t find the reference but it’s an old model 👌🏻
By law there not allowed to use the siren in traffic jams as may entice other motorists to jump red lights to let emergency vehicles threw
Thought the hardest junction was Hanger Lane Gyratory ?
Can you hear passengers from where your sitting
Yeah but the passenger can turn it off
You muffed it up bus lane would have been quicker
Always approach in bus lane then use your mirrors and filter into correct lane
😮
Hyde Park Cnr is piss easy, Hanger Lane is horrific
Hi
Did I see homeless tents in the middle of Park Lane?
First one here. 😅
Tom do you have a business card or number or something you could share? I’m sure people would be gagging to have you drive a booked appointment on the odd occasion!!!
He has said he doesn’t do jobs to order nowadays as it stresses him out.
Cyclists should have number plates. How many laws do they break in London?
I saw motorbikes with massively excessive speed, cars stopped on double red, cars stopped in yellow boxes. He even mentioned multiple people breaking the speed limit whether you agree with the limit or not. Multiple cars going through Red lights. I saw two cyclists at the beginning, both waited at the red light and behaved perfectly legally. And a city absolutely CHOKED by the volume of cars but you have found a way to complain about not even the subject of the video .. I think you have a problem.
@@user-iv5tq4qk7m Buddy, I travel to London three days a week. I see cyclists all the god dam time. Cutting off cars, ambulances and knocking people over. Thats what my comment was about.
A comment does not have to be in line within what is shown in a video, but people's suggestions and creating a conversation is the best way to describe a comment. Besides, every comment helps the upload and its creators, no matter what its about.
Your the one with the problem, not able to distinguish between what you saw and what people think.
@@raystewart3648 you need to seek professional help.
The fact that that road is 20mph is so stupid. Whoever came up with that idea needs a slap.
Quite shocked at you (and other road users) merging in front of the ambulance and no one making effort to move left just before Harrods. The only reason they didn’t have sirens as there was no room to pass (the did when able to). Poor show