Tourists' Destination?

LTA has revised its plans to allow taxi to pick up passengers along non-bus plying route in CBD. OMG! I cant believe it. Yes, no doubt it will bring convenience to more passengers, it also reflect badly abt their initial plans. I am surprised no proper plan or even pilot test was carried out prior to the implementation of the new regulations.

On March 1, all taxis in the CBD can only picked up passengers at taxi stand or private buildings. I was pretty skeptical abt the new rules. How will handicapped and elderly passengers react? LTA has built more taxi stands, however, passengers may need to walk up to 400m to find one. It will be tough for these pple.

Secondly, what happens if it rains? Some taxi stands are well sheltered but not all. We cant expect the passengers to wait in the rain. Pple catch a cab for a single purpose, convenience. If not, pple would have taken other public transport like buses or MRT. Complaints and feedback were given but LTA has assured that for public safety, it is worth the effort.

Finally, wat abt our tourists? STB has actively promote Singapore as a tourist destination. The new rule did create some problem as foreigners are not familiar with our system. They might stand naively on the road for taxis. Somehow, it work against our plan to remake Singapore into a better place.

Some taxi stands had long taxi queues. Eventually, it will jammed up the road. Isnt tat a problem too? There are so many outstanding factors tat need to be ironed out. However, it seems tat all were done in a rush with inadequate planning and poor management. I certainly think it could have been better. True enough, rules have been amended. The amended ones look better than the original one.

After the hooha, the situation still need to be monitored. The authority may have to be more cautious the next time before they introduced other new regulations.