Jenny Jones 57, assembly member for the Green party, has asked the Mayor to reconsider his approach on the mid term checks on London Taxis.
Boris has been quoted as saying that the mid term safety checks were "dead, it's as dead as a dodo its an ex test".
Unelected assembly member Jones, is the safety ambassador for cyclists. She was badly hurt in a cycling accident recently when, not wearing safety pads or a protective helmet, a car clipped her rear wheel. She hit the kerb fell off and broke her arm.
The Madwoman of Chaillot as she is known in the cab trade, points to the number of taxi safety inspection failures, from figures issued by SGS. Unfortunately she has not investigated the facts behind the figures.
Cabs are failing the test because of the wrong documentation (meter certificate and insurance cover note) and also the unreliable smoke test.
Unreliable because it all depends on whether the engine is hot, warm or cold. When a taxi arrives at SCS, if too early, most drivers who are not mechanics will switch off their engine and while they wait, the engine cools. With a cold engine the cab will fail the smoke test. Cabs that have failed the smoke test have been retested the next day with a warm engine and passed, with no modification whatsoever.
Very few if any are failing for safety defects.
She also made a comment about the recent fires in TX4's, but what she failed to say was that all the vehicles affected where 56 plates and ALL had, had a mid term safety check which never identified a fire risk.
London Taxis have the best safety record of any form of public transport in the world. We are reasonable for 60,000,000 passenger journeys a year and are recorded as being involved in only 1% of traffic accidents.
After over a hundred years of motorised taxis, the mid term test was an unnecessary extra expense. It only came about because TFL felt it necessary to inspect private hire vehicles twice a year, as they are not purpose built to do the work of a taxi.
This is a another reason why the taxi trade and the private hire trade must be separated. We do not do the same work, we do not drive the same vehicle and we should not be governed by the same licensing authority.

http://theandersonshelter.blogspot.com/2008/10/madwoman-of-chaillot-pokes-her-nose-in.html