No One Likes the New Taxis

It seems like the residents of Abu Dhabi have the same reaction to the new taxis that I did:

Residents in the Capital are dissatisfied with the new taxi services that were launched a few months ago.

While speaking to several commuters, Khaleej Times found out the reasons for their disappointment. Most of those spoken to were unanimous in their views that the taxis’ fares had doubled, registering an increase of 100 per cent compared to the old taxis.

I agree wholeheartedly. It is interesting to note that some of the people interviewed said that they are now walking as much as 4 kilometers because they cannot afford the new fares. So you have to think that this decision could quite easily increase the pedestrian accident rate, especially as the roads here a very unfriendly for pedestrians, not to mention the potential for heatstroke when the temperatures increase.

In response to these complaints and demands, Lieutenant-Colonel Mohammed Maiouf Al Kotbi, manager of drivers’ licensing and vehicles in the General Headquarters of Abu Dhabi Police, said the decision of the new taxi services came as a result of the demands and requests of the Abu Dhabi residents, as they frequently complained about the behaviour of many of the old taxi drivers. "We received so many complaints from people that the drivers of the old taxis refused to stop for passengers or that they refused to drive outside the city centre or in crowded areas," said Lt-Col. Al Kotbi.

"For these reasons people demanded a new taxi system and the Abu Dhabi Police responded by launching the new taxi service, which aims to solve the problems," he added.

Lt-Col. Al Kotbi also pointed out that the new taxi project allows for more confidence between passengers and drivers, who are trained to be cooperative and friendly. "The problem of doubling the taxi fare is unacceptable and the passengers are entitled to get a receipt for the payment and, in case of increasing the fairs, they should come to the police," he said.

As I pointed out before, the new taxis are also charging by the hour, which seems, in my limited experience, when combined with the increased milage rate, to be the cause the doubling.

I'm not sure exactly why the two systems cannot run together either; if one wants to pay extra for a cleaner car with a more courteous driver, great. But for those who cannot, why get rid of the older system? For that matter, why make us change in Al Ain for problems that we were not having? I have never had or heard of a driver refusing a fare to anywhere in Al Ain. Has anyone ever that this experience?

New Taxis

As part of getting ready to go home, I have sold the car, so I'm back to riding in taxis, something I haven't done much of in the last two years and not at all in the last six months. So this weekend I finally got to rid in one of the new taxis that are slowly replacing Abu Dhabi and Al Ain's old gold and white taxis. You can take a peek at the new taxis at the Trans AD website.

So how was it? It stunk.

No, wait, it smelled ok. It is the old taxis (well, mostly the drivers) that stink. The taxi itself was very clean, comfortable and unsmelly (being a new car doesn't hurt with any of this, I'm sure), the driver uniformed and polite, no decorated dashboard coverings or weird noises coming from the car anywhere.

But, it is also a good bit more expensive. The old taxis charge 2 dirhams + 50 fils per km (and the 50 fils doesn't take effect until the meter has gone 0.9 kms, so a trip of 1.8 kms is the same price as 0.9 kms). The new taxis charge 3 dirhams + 75 fils per km + 21 dirhams per hour (+ 2.50 dirhams if you call them instead of flagging one down). So a trip to the mall that cost 6.50 going in an old taxi cost 12.50 coming back. Sure, I can afford it. But what about my co-workers who do not make as much as I do and do not have cars? Their transportation cost, when the old taxis are all gone, are going to skyrocket.

I'm sure that these taxis are safer, cleaner, etc, etc. But the old ones have character. And I'm pretty sure that no one will never have some of the experiences that I did in the old cabs: enjoying a cabbie whooping with delight as he listens to Pakistan play India in cricket; having a cabbie ask if I have a sister he could marry; or being told by another how much he loves the Taliban and hates Americans; or being told by the very next one how much he loves George Bush and hates the Taliban; or another that said I look Turkish or Syrian because I have a "beautiful beard" but my terrible Arabic accent gave me away; or the one that tried to convert me to Islam, even though I seemed to know more about it than he did; or the lunatic, laughing maniacally as he ran a red light.

These were real experiences, memories that I will have the rest of my life. Whenever I tell the maniacally red light running story, everyone laughs - who is going to be entertained by a story that goes "It was a very pleasant, safe ride"?

Progress - that is what really stinks.

New Taxi Scheme

Abu Dhabi announced a new plan for taxis, and it was heavily covered in the press, with stories in the Gulf News, Khaleej Times, and Emirates Today (probably others too, but I only checked these three). After reading all these stories, I can't say that I understand exactly what the changes will mean for ownership, but then I don't understand the current system either. I understand that the fares are going up slightly - trips to work for me will be about 1.50 dirhams more expensive.

One thing that I noticed: There seems to be one group that is not really mentioned in any of these stories. It seems a little strange that none of these stories addressed what these changes will mean for the drivers.

So, which is it? (And buy a subscription to Google already)

Emirates today can't make up its mind.

Cabbies will be the death of us all

Cabbies are heroic ironmen, driving to Saturn and partway back in three months.

And not only are the tone of the two in contradiction, but the facts presented are too.

Article One: There are 6,000 registered cabs, and they never get a day off

Article Two: There are an average of 3,000 cabs on the road every day.

Also, the 91.7 million km distance from Earth to Saturn? Not even close, as a quick Googling will tell you.

The closest approach of Saturn to the Sun is 1,348 million km. The maximum distance of Earth from the Sun is 98.3 million km. So if Saturn is at it's closest point to the Sun, and Earth is at its farthest point from the Sun, and Saturn and Earth happen to be perfectly aligned, it is still around 1,249 million km to Saturn. So the 91.7 million km is only off by a factor of 13 or so. This figure is so wrong, you have to wonder how in the world they came up with it.

Unsafe statistics

First, I am wholeheartedly in favor of "an ambitious campaign designed to place Dubai among the top 10 international cities with safest roads within the next five years". But it isn't going to happen with analysis like this: "Taxi drivers are most likely to cause a fatal accident".

The proof that taxi drivers are the most dangerous? "Taxis represent [slightly] less than one per cent of all vehicles in Dubai...However, during the first nine months of this year, taxi drivers caused the deaths of seven people. The total number of deaths for this same period is 215 people, which means taxis were responsible 3.26 per cent of the road deaths."

But you can't just take the number of taxis and the number of registered vehicles and compare them to the number of fatalities. Let's look a little deeper.

The story also says that taxi drivers are on the road up to 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and drive 400 to 500 km per day. Let's use 12 hours a day/84 hours a week as an average for the taxi drivers of Dubai, as the story suggests. So for taxis to make up less than 3.26% of the cars on the road, the other 600,000 - 700,000 cars of Dubai would have to be on the road an average of 22 to 26 hours a week on the road. Now, I know that traffic in Dubai is bad, but does it seem likely that there are 600,000 non-taxis on the roads of Dubai 26 hours a week?

Or let's look at kilometers driven. The story suggests 2800 kms per week as a low figure. Unless the average kilometers driven per week of the other 600,000 cars is about 944, then taxis drive more than 3.26% of the kilometers driven.

Moreover, even if the government had just banned taxis starting January 1, there would still be at least 208 deaths on the road. If the authorities and Emirates Today are serious about making the roads safe, then reducing the number of hours taxi drivers work, as good an idea as that is, is not going to make dent in the fatalities.

Taxis

Since I don't have a car yet (I can't buy one until I get my resident visa), I'm having to take taxis everywhere. Riding in a taxi here is quite an experience. Nearly all the drivers are from Pakistan, with a few Bangladeshis and Afghans. And almost none of them speak English, so you have to communicate in Arabic. Unfortunately, most of them don't speak Arabic either (I am assured that this is true by my Arab co-workers), so you have to give directions (like "left", "right", "straight", "here") in a language that neither one of you really understand.

Another thing that makes getting around in a taxi so interesting is that no one uses street addresses or street names. Unless you are going to a well known landmark (mall, hotel, etc), then you have to give the neighborhood or district that you want to go to and then give directions from there.

The last thing that makes taxis rides so interesting is manner in which the drivers drive. I am constantly amazed that there are not more accidents involving these guys. In terms of obeying speed limits, lane discipline, stop signs, and the like, they are awful drivers. But in terms of awareness of what is going on around them and avoiding trouble, they are amazing.

One last thing, the most important part of a taxi seems to be the horn. The driver uses it to ask if you need a ride, to signal to someone he knows, to warn pedestrians (the concept of 'the pedestrian has the right of way' is more like 'the pedestrian has the right to stay out of my way' here), to criticize someone else's driving, and to tell those in front of him that the light changed to green a milisecond ago.