South Africa to rein in its minibus taxi industry

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If only this was actually within the realm of poosiblity.

I mean, they would first need to get rid of all the politicians and policemen that are also taxi bosses first. but yeah, good luck to them.
 
**** taxis.

You know it's so convenient and less stressful to take train. No sane person would choose a taxi above a train.

I've seen a video someone took driving something like 120km/s on a road next to the railway lines and one of these new blue electric trains eased past him.

These bad boys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X'Trapolis_Mega

Deas quiet, air-conditioned, and automatic doors which prevents the train from moving if not closed. In-carriage displays of current and next station details (so you don't get lost), the displays are combined with an audio announcement. I was also pleasantly surprised the other day when the driver cut off the announcement to say we'll be 3 minutes late in Bellville as he's moving a little slower so as to not have to wait before Bellville because another train coming from the other direction has to make use of our designated platform due to an issue on their own platform.

We'll always have our African problems, but by God, this is a step in the right direction!

Upgrade the rail infrastructure and dramatically increase the number of lines and stations.

You'll be saving rail travel for both commuters and freight.

Offer 100k to taxi owners to crush their taxis.
 
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porchrat said:
who is going to draw the short straw and actually attempt to enforce any of this?

Hope his affairs are in order.
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Seen a cop once pull over a taxi, other taxi's quickly rallied around the cop. The taxi had broken 3 laws, speeding, going through a red traffic light and just stopping where-ever it felt like it. Cop had to back down as apparently the law isn't enough to stop them.
 
Lupus said:
Seen a cop once pull over a taxi, other taxi's quickly rallied around the cop. The taxi had broken 3 laws, speeding, going through a red traffic light and just stopping where-ever it felt like it. Cop had to back down as apparently the law isn't enough to stop them.
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Funny enough a couple of years ago, while on my way to work, I saw a taxi scream past me in the neighbouring MyCiti bus lane. He must have been doing 110kph easily. Middle of morning rush hour.

About 10seconds later I see a metro cop flying down the lane after him, lights and sirens going like mad.

I round the corner and there's this cop having pulled this taxi over. Coloured female cop. She couldn't have weighed more than 40kg soaking wet. Lower 5' tall. She had this taxi driver by the collar and had pulled him down to her level. He was bent over at the waist 90 degrees, desperately trying not to look her in the eye, an expression of abject terror on his face. She had the finger of the hand not holding him pointed right at his nose, screaming at him full force into his face from like 10cm away.

Her partner was just standing to the side a massive smile on his face.

Passing motorists were hooting and shouting congratulations and encouragement to her. It was the craziest thing I've ever seen. I hope she's still out there making crims' lives hell.
 
The_Ogre said:
**** taxis.

You know it's so convenient and less stressful to take train. No sane person would choose a taxi above a train.

I've seen a video someone took driving something like 120km/s on a road next to the railway lines and one of these new blue electric trains eased past him.

These bad boys: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X'Trapolis_Mega

Deas quiet, air-conditioned, and automatic doors which prevents the train from moving if not closed. In-carriage displays of current and next station details (so you don't get lost), the displays are combined with an audio announcement. I was also pleasantly surprised the other day when the driver cut off the announcement to say we'll be 3 minutes late in Bellville as he's moving a little slower so as to not have to wait before Bellville because another train coming from the other direction has to make use of our designated platform due to an issue on their own platform.

We'll always have our African problems, but by God, this is a step in the right direction!

Upgrade the rail infrastructure and dramatically increase the number of lines and stations.

You'll be saving rail travel for both commuters and freight.

Offer 100k to taxi owners to crush their taxis.
Click to expand...
Im sorry, as much as I agree with everything you have said above - offering them R100k to crush their taxis is mad. They probably earn that in a week in fares.
 
Zellephant said:
Im sorry, as much as I agree with everything you have said above - offering them R100k to crush their taxis is mad. They probably earn that in a week in fares.
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In CT the owners don't even make a tenth of that per week (per taxi).

In the previous recapitilization round we got rid of all those kak Toyota Siyaya and Nissan E220's by offering them R50k. You can guage the success of that plan by checking out your window tomorrow while driving to work.

99% of minibuses used as taxis today are Toyota Quantums, in part because of the recapitilization program.

Here's how we can expand on that: every operating license has only one owner, but eachlicense is linked to an unlimited number of vehicles. Hard limit that number to two taxis per license (the two newest). The remainder gets a new status called "provisionally scrapped". All fines for any infringement is double.

We deal with these prodigal taxis like WINRAR dealt with us - claim it will expire, but never do!

On the back of every fine we print "If you accept the recapitilization offer, we will cancel this fine. Promise"
 
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