China too
has revised taxi regulations but for different reasons, to regulate the app
taxis to protect the traditional taxi trade. Singapore is also sounding out
more changes in the pipeline to regulate app taxis to bring them in line to the
licenced taxi drivers, in a way to protect the highly regulated but less than
satisfactory taxi service.
The advent
of app taxis is a natural development and a need for a more efficient service
to favour the commuters. More app taxi operators will mean more competition and
should also lead to better services, and maybe cheaper as well.
The safety
of female passengers is something that is not being raised. Maybe this is the
culture of crime free Singapore where passengers being raped by rogue taxi
drivers is a rarity. Maybe all the foreigners landed here, and now can also
drive app taxis will be more like the decent Singaporeans after drinking our
newater. So rape of female passengers or
other crimes would be rare and if happened, acceptable and nothing to worry
about.
Just
wondering whether this kind of attitude is bravery, daft or cavalier, or I am
just being too conservative, paranoid and not up to date with the new mindset,
that taking taxis and being raped is part and parcel of life and the female
victims must live with it.
Let’s see if
the govt will introduce some measures in this line. The need for checks on
criminal records and the registering of all taxi drivers could be the ways the
govt is keeping tap and keeping crimes by taxi drivers in control. By allowing
so much freedom for app taxi drivers to operate, would crimes by these new
drivers be an issue or be too small to be significant enough to warrant any
measures or concern by the govt?
What do you
think?
@ stranger-danger, RB:
ReplyDelete>> The safety of female passengers is something that is not being raised. <<
The drivers of the 2 Über trips I took recently were attractive women in their 20's. One was last week coming from Changi airport, and the other in KL a few days ago.
Women are more prone to sexual assault than men are. In places like India where "rape culture" is prevalent, one can expect its horrific manifestation in the service industry, where a (potential rapist) male-female dyad is commonplace.
P.S. I told one Über driver that eventually there will be forms of state "regulation" for the ride-share/ app industry. This is bound to happen as usage becomes more "democratic".
ReplyDeleteSome foreign female taxi passengers have asked why Singapore taxis do not have a metal barrier between the taxi drivers and passengers in the cabin similar to taxicabs in other countries. They find certain taxi drivers here too overly “friendly” towards them, and thus having a metal barrier to keep drivers away would be very helpful.
ReplyDeleteThe above is posted by a taxi commuter in TRE
/// Some foreign female taxi passengers have asked why Singapore taxis do not have a metal barrier between the taxi drivers and passengers in the cabin similar to taxicabs in other countries. ///
ReplyDeleteOctober 15, 2015 2:22 p.m.
Why ask us Singaporeans?
We are just " ****** Asians "
Go ask the Pro Alien Party Millionaires.
They represent 70% of us Singaporeans and 100% of them Aliens.