[sustran] Re: Information on 'Bike Taxi'

[Viet Hung Khuat]

Hallo,
I am fully agree with Karl about the issue of walkway occupancy by MC Taxi. 
But I have here discussions as follows:
1. There is no consideration of government and experts about the intermodal 
facilities between MC taxi and Public transport. 
2. No concern about where should be the park or waiting place for MC taxi
while most of the activities centers have taxi waiting area.
3. Regarding the trip length: we should consider the weather conditions in
Bangkok or Hanoi, it is different from most of European countries. So, the
ASEAN people may do not want to walk on this condition.
4. If we have no MC taxi, It would be worse if 10% the passengers will use
the PC, 40% will use the PC-taxi, even the rest 50%  will use the NMV for
their paratransit trip.
Sincerely,
HUNG
> One of the downsides is that motorcycle taxis tend to lounge around and
> park
> on walkways, and ride on walkways for at least part of their journey,
> honking aggressively to clear away those bothersome pedestrians. Further,
> the areas they congregate in tend to be more concentrated areas of
> pedestrian activity such as major bus stops, markets, etc. In Bangkok it's
> common for them to cordon off areas near a bus stop to the detriment of
> waiting bus passengers - e.g. in front of Pata Pinklao. Not to mention the
> noise and air pollution they contribute, often in areas with lots of
> people
> which already suffer noise and air pollution (there's been an interesting
> debate on noise pollution recently in Bangkok following data released by
> the
> Env Ministry).
> 
> Another consideration is that many of the motorcylce taxi trips in Bangkok
> are within an easy walking distance - if only there was a navigable,
> pleasant walkway. If conditions for short distance trips by walking were
> improved, the demand for motorcycle taxis would diminish. Also, where
> trips
> are too long to walk, bicycles could easily substitute for motorcycle
> taxis
> for many trips, if only secure parking areas and other forms of
> encouragement were provided for cycling. Such measures need not cost a
> lot.
> 
> But there seems to be little interesting in encouraging alternatives to
> motorcycle taxis, and this leads to the point that the motorcycle taxi
> industry is also a major contributor to corruption, by most estimates
> contributing tens of millions of dollars each year in pay-offs to police
> and
> others. It's great to have these motorcycle taxi services in outlying
> areas
> where otherwise no other service might be available, but the real issue is
> their presence in congested urban areas. They can play a valuable role as
> Jonathan outlines. However, at least in Bangkok which I'm more familiar
> with, encouraging walking and cycling and improved bus routings as an
> alternative to motorcycle taxis wherever possible, and strictly
> prohibiting
> motorcycle taxis from parking or driving on walkways, would have many
> benefits.
> 
> Regards, Karl 
> 
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: sustran-discuss-bounces+karl=dnet.net.id at list.jca.apc.org
> [mailto:sustran-discuss-bounces+karl=dnet.net.id at list.jca.apc.org] On
> Behalf
> Of Jonathan E. D. Richmond
> Sent: Monday, 23 August 2004 11:18 PM
> To: Asia and the Pacific sustainable transport
> Subject: [sustran] Re: Information on 'Bike Taxi'
> 
> 
> It is a mistake to assume that official public transport will necessarily
> result in the consumption of less fuel than motorbike taxis or that it can
> replace them in many instances. A bike operating on demand in a suburban
> area can be considerably more efficient than buses circulating most of the
> day almost empty.
> 
> In fact, many motorbike services do operate as public transport --
> charging
> about the same fare but providing a level of frequency not possible with
> buses. For low-income people living in outlying suburbs, there may be no
> alternative if density is inufficient for more formal operations -- in
> fact,
> in many cases, the bikes actually operate from bus stops and provide
> services to locations not served by buses.
> 
> So we have to be careful about making generalizations.
> 
> Note that in my case the alternative to taking a motorbike, which I
> frequently use to complete a journey after a bus or train ride, would be
> to
> take a regular taxi for the whole journey as it would simply take too long
> otherwise.
> 
>                                             --jonathan
> 
> -----
> 
> Jonathan E. D. Richmond                               02 524-5510 (office)
> Visiting Fellow                               Intl.: 662 524-5510
> Transportation Engineering program
> School of Civil Engineering, Room N260B               02 524-8257 (home)
> Asian Institute of Technology                 Intl.: 662 524-8257
> PO Box 4
> Klong Luang, Pathumthani 12120                        02 524-5509 (fax)
> Thailand                                      Intl:  662 524-5509
> 
> e-mail: richmond at ait.ac.th               Secretary:  Ms. Nisarat Hansuksa
>         richmond at alum.mit.edu		              02 524-6051
> 					      Intl:  662 524-6051
> http://the-tech.mit.edu/~richmond/
> 
> 
> 

-- 
****************************************
Khuat Viet Hung, M.Eng
(C/o: Prof. Manfred Boltze)
Institut fuer Verkehr, TU Darmstadt
Petersenstrasse 30, 64287 Darmstadt, Deutschland
Tel. : + 49-6151-16 2026
Fax:  + 49-6151-16 2045

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