A London cabbie's philosophy

There are major roadworks going on at both ends of my journey at the moment. I have lost track of what they are doing in Brixton - it started out with refurbishing the Victorian water mains, but whatever they are doing now, seems to have been going on for years. In South Kensington, they have just pedestrianised the area around the tube station, and rerouted all the traffic, which makes not only for major roadworks, but also utter confusion. The traffic is a complete nightmare around there at the moment, especially in the evenings.

Coming home this evening, I was as usual stuck in a line of traffic, behind cars pointing at stupid angles across lanes, having changed their mind at the last minute, waiting for the lights to change in order to inch forward. I managed to make it round the corner, where there was an utter logjam - a green light off in the distance, but absolutely no movement, and a car blocking the way of a black cab. The taxi driver had been standing out on the road shouting at the driver of the car blocking him, but got back in his car as I pulled up. But since there was absolutely no way round or through I just had to wait there with my bike. The cabbie could not resist including me in his (justified) frustation.

"You know what the problem is, don't you? Transport for London. They've just got too much money."

This is a frequent complaint, and one whose validity I am never quite sure about - leftover budgets needing to be spent before the round-up of the financiaI year, so let's blow it all on needless roadworks... (though actually when it's finished South Kensington will be much more pleasant)

And I am not sure I believe what a cabbie says about TfL - a company that exists to manage the city's public transport, and thereby to deny cab drivers an income. And I also wonder - if they have too much money, then why on earth are they talking about hiking the prices on the tube, again?