This morning on the news they had interviewed a few taxi drivers that claim their bad driving is due to taxi owners putting pressure on the driver to make more money. Now in my opinion, if that is the case then start nailing the owners.
The law should be changed that if you are caught endangering the lives of your passengers in any vehicle where a PDP license is required, then the vehicle is confiscated. In other words, if you’re skipping robots, and speeding unnecessary, and hurtling down the bus-lane/emergency lane, or driving into oncoming traffic, then you lose your taxi. Easy as that.
After the situation on Friday, where a taxi driver, driving in the emergency lane, wouldn’t give someone in the turning lane space to make his turn, and the whole thing ending in a fist fight, it looks like the public is getting progressively fed-up with the way taxi drivers are driving, and getting away with it.
I want to see some action by the cops, not the lazy sucker hiding behind his speeding radar, and then not focusing on any taxis because they just don’t pay fines, but rather catching the people that look like they can afford the fine.
I want to see action where the cops actually pull people over for skipping red lights. It has gotten so bad on early morning cycles, that I’m slowing down for green traffic lights, because chances are pretty good that someone will be skipping the red light.
Or pulling vehicles over that are clearly overloaded or unroadworthy. Or for various other transgressions.
But they are clearly too lazy to do that. I’ve been pulled over twice recently where once my license had expired (I don’t always have the time to go stand in line for a license, and the one time when I was there they wouldn’t give it to me, because another car that’s on my name, that hasn’t seen the road in two years, had an expired license). I was honestly trying to do the right thing, but they would not listen to that reasoning. The second time I was pulled over for a broken front number plate.
And both times they were hinting for bribes, but when it dawned on them, that I meant it when I told them, in the nicest possible way, to go to hell and give me the fine, they let me go. Both times. Too lazy to write out a single page form!
I miss the old days, when cops were still proud to be cops, and actually did it properly.
Hi Barend, I agree with your post. I firmly believe that the accountability must rest with the drivers and more importantly the owners of the taxi’s. I do also think though that the passengers may be able to play a role in all of this.