[sustran] Re: Information on 'Bike Taxi'

Paul Barter paulbarter at nus.edu.sg
Tue Aug 24 11:06:50 JST 2004


Dear Anil, Kisan and Jonathon,

I don't see taxi-like modes (including 4-wheel, 3-wheel and 2-wheel;
motorised or non-motorised) as competing with conventional public
transport. In large cities at least, a flourishing set of taxi-like
options is likely to be complementary to public transport. (smaller
towns, without any fixed-route public transport to speak of, may be
another story)

Chris Bradshaw on another list recently made a relevant point: 
"There are five kinds of what I call MASC, or metered access to a shared
car: car-rental, ride-sharing, taxi, carsharing, and informal sharing (a
car owner letting family, friends, or neighbours drive it -- or an
employer provide "pooled" cars for business travel).  Although only
carsharing charges purely by time and distance, all have the potential,
working together with walking, cycling, and transit, to shift all the
significant fixed costs to variable costs, making all car use appear to
be as expensive as it is -- and to provide trip-by-trip documentation,
reducing car uses that do not relate to "need" rather than getting one's
"money worth". This makes private car ownership appear much less
economical and eventually unnecessary.  In time, we might well reduce
the concomitant excessive land demands for roads and parking by making
society's "fleet" no larger than necessary."  (Date: Thu, 12 Aug 2004
22:07:54 -0700; From: "Chris Bradshaw", Subject: Re: WBCSD report -
Report    Contributions)

So for Kathmandu, I would say probably encourage BOTH public transport
AND taxi-like modes. I would think that this could be part of efforts to
reduce the rate of private vehicle ownership increases, by helping to
keep non-ownership a viable option. I don't recall seeing solid research
on this however but I would certainly like to know if there is any. 

Paul

Dr Paul A. Barter
Visiting Fellow, LKY School of Public Policy, 
National University of Singapore
5 Arts Link, Singapore 117570 
Tel: +65-6874 3324;  Fax: +65-6778 1020
Email:  paulbarter at nus.edu.sg
I am speaking for myself, not for my employers.


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