Introduce ‘maxi taxi stops’

THE EDITOR: I have little doubt that most drivers agree that maxi taxis are the biggest nuisances on the roads of this country.

These vehicles do as they please on the roads — stop where and when they like to pick up passengers or drop them off, and weave in and out of traffic like oversized worms hunting for food. If a max taxi driver has twelve passengers to collect or drop off at ten-foot intervals, we can be sure he will stop twelve times for the next 120 feet — an absolutely ridiculous state of affairs. The normal ‘government’ bus, on account of its size, is not permitted to just stop anywhere to handle passengers — think of what would happen if they were allowed to do that: the confusion would be unbearable. Thank the good Lord that some wise gentleman invented the bus stop. Yet the complete opposite is happening with these maxi taxis, they are, after all, nothing but smaller buses run by private individuals over which the authorities exercise little control.

There was a time in Trinidad when bus companies were privately run, and I suppose that to overcome the problems of efficiency and reliability and other general considerations, the government chose to do away with that system and bring what we call the PTSC into being. But the fact of the matter is that the privately owned and operated bus returned to the streets with the advent of the maxi-taxi, and many of the rules which govern the regular buses should be applied to the maxis-taxis. Whoever is in charge of maxi-taxis can attend to details, but one straightforward change should be made immediately: the introduction of a system of bus-stops similar to those used by PTSC buses; possibly the same bus-stops used by buses with additions or subtractions as necessary, according to area and other passenger/traffic requirements. These ‘maxi-taxi stops’ should be the only legal place for maxi-taxis to stop, and the Police should be encouraged to enforce the law rigidly.

JEREMY BOYD
Gulf View