Lack of taxi stands adds to traffic woes in city
WE board planes at the airport, ships at the port and buses at the bus stand.
We cannot board planes at the bus stand, neither can we board ships at the airport or buses at the port.
This is because each mode of transport has its own terminal or stop to pick up or drop off passengers.
Going by this logic, it goes without saying that we have to wait for taxis at the taxi stand.
What if there are plenty of taxis but few taxi stands as in the case of the Johor Baru city centre?
Under such circumstances, it would be a problem for taxi drivers to pick up their passengers. The opposite is true for passengers to hail a cab.
However, in real life, taxi drivers have no problems picking up their passengers anywhere.
Likewise, passengers also have no problem flagging down a taxi anywhere.
This is because it is common to see taxis abruptly stop by the roadside to pick up or drop off their passengers.
I do not condone any violation of traffic rules but what other choices do our taxi drivers and passengers have?
The Johor Baru city centre is not a small place but it has only two taxi stands -- one in front of the post office and another at the Galleria@Kotaraya shopping centre.
The question is why do the authorities issue so many taxi permits when they are not bothered to provide the most basic amenity for the cabbies?
Such inadequacy may be misconstrued as allowing taxi drivers to break the law.
I spoke to several taxi drivers and this was a general problem brought up by them.
One of the taxi drivers, who had been caught for picking up passengers at a non-designated taxi stand, was fined for committing the offence.
Since then, he always charges a little extra for the risk he takes, as well as to compensate the "loss" if he were to be fined.
The little extra could be derived by charging a flat rate which is higher than the metered fare.
Or rounding off the metered fare to the nearest ringgit.
It is wrong for taxi drivers to resort to this practice.
If the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) is serious about addressing the problem of overcharging by cabbies, it is necessary to nip the problem in the bud.
One solution is to build more taxi stands in the city.
In the event that the cabbies still refuse to pick up or drop off their passengers at the designated taxi stands, then the authorities should take stern action against them. This does not mean that until the taxi stands are built, the unscrupulous taxi drivers can go scot-free.
Old habit dies hard when it comes to overcharging by cabbies.
It is like daylight robbery but few victims bother to make a report with the Road Transport Department or SPAD.
The authorities should build more taxi stands for the benefit of cabbies and passengers.
~News courtesy of New Straits Times~
WE board planes at the airport, ships at the port and buses at the bus stand.
We cannot board planes at the bus stand, neither can we board ships at the airport or buses at the port.
This is because each mode of transport has its own terminal or stop to pick up or drop off passengers.
Going by this logic, it goes without saying that we have to wait for taxis at the taxi stand.
What if there are plenty of taxis but few taxi stands as in the case of the Johor Baru city centre?
Under such circumstances, it would be a problem for taxi drivers to pick up their passengers. The opposite is true for passengers to hail a cab.
However, in real life, taxi drivers have no problems picking up their passengers anywhere.
Likewise, passengers also have no problem flagging down a taxi anywhere.
This is because it is common to see taxis abruptly stop by the roadside to pick up or drop off their passengers.
I do not condone any violation of traffic rules but what other choices do our taxi drivers and passengers have?
The Johor Baru city centre is not a small place but it has only two taxi stands -- one in front of the post office and another at the Galleria@Kotaraya shopping centre.
The question is why do the authorities issue so many taxi permits when they are not bothered to provide the most basic amenity for the cabbies?
Such inadequacy may be misconstrued as allowing taxi drivers to break the law.
I spoke to several taxi drivers and this was a general problem brought up by them.
One of the taxi drivers, who had been caught for picking up passengers at a non-designated taxi stand, was fined for committing the offence.
Since then, he always charges a little extra for the risk he takes, as well as to compensate the "loss" if he were to be fined.
The little extra could be derived by charging a flat rate which is higher than the metered fare.
Or rounding off the metered fare to the nearest ringgit.
It is wrong for taxi drivers to resort to this practice.
If the Land Public Transport Commission (SPAD) is serious about addressing the problem of overcharging by cabbies, it is necessary to nip the problem in the bud.
One solution is to build more taxi stands in the city.
In the event that the cabbies still refuse to pick up or drop off their passengers at the designated taxi stands, then the authorities should take stern action against them. This does not mean that until the taxi stands are built, the unscrupulous taxi drivers can go scot-free.
Old habit dies hard when it comes to overcharging by cabbies.
It is like daylight robbery but few victims bother to make a report with the Road Transport Department or SPAD.
The authorities should build more taxi stands for the benefit of cabbies and passengers.
~News courtesy of New Straits Times~
There are a couple more taxi stands (over at CIQ for example) - also at Zon (if you count that as city center). Most malls have them (again depending on definition of center): KSL mall, Plaza Pelangi.
ReplyDeleteI think 2 actions would be best and don't quite require building taxi stands.
1) encourage the use of existing possible taxi stands (Galleria mall, hotels downtown...). In some places hotel taxi stands act like they are for the use of hotel guests only. This is bad urban planning - make them into public taxi stands (I would require this as part of zoning deals) which improves the urban landscape and lifestyle. Malls need them integrated too (City Square either doesn't have one or it is not workable - they used to have one in a bad location but that disappeared when Kotmar construction started - this is bad urban planning, you can't have construction remove necessary transportation options).
2) create new pull off spaces for taxis - if you can fit a full taxi stand, great, but if not even a space for 2 taxis to pull off or pick up people can be useful. Of course you have to enforce that these are kept free - if people part there
are you do nothing to stop them it is pointless (similar to creating walkable areas that cars or a bunch of motorcycles just park on covering the entire sidewalk so people can't walk there).