Taxi Drivers Dilemma

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Every time there is a major event coming to a city, the first priority is to improve the city transportation system. For example, during the last Olympic game, the transportation system in Beijing had to be improved in such a way that the environmental impact due to vehicles emissions in the city has now been minimized.

In the case of South Africa, the next football world cup will be held in 2010. The city Johannesburg will roll out new buses as part of the transport improvement in preparation of the major game. The authority prefers to use the bus system because it can be properly managed to be reliable, properly scheduled and safe, while improving services to some areas.

However, based on the news report, thousands of minibus taxi drivers in Cape Town are against similar project of improving the transport system project. They are afraid that the influx of public bus system will affect their income. They are afraid that not many people will use their services and thus affecting their income.

However, if the local authority carries out proper planning and coordinating all of the public transportation system, the income of the taxi drivers can be made higher. By properly locating the bus terminals and bus routes, taxi services are required to be feeder services to the overall transportation system. Thus, there is no basis for the taxi drivers to be afraid of their income to be affected. The most important this is that as long as they can provide efficient and reliable services, more users will use their services in the future.

Actually, by introducing the new bus services, it would be a relief to many commuters as their needs and safety are not solely dependent on taxi services. For more information about the taxi drivers dilemma, read HERE.