Metered taxis for Panama under review
(newsroompanama.com) Panama’s transport authority (ATTT) is looking at the installation of meters in taxis, to help solve zoning charges, now largely governed by the drivers
The director of the Transit Authority and Land Transport (ATTT), Jorge Ricardo Fabrega, says that the use of metered taxis is being discussed and studied
According to Fabrega, meters do an efficient job by checking the distance and time and when the driver is in a traffic jam , the revolution of the monitoring unit reduces so the user is not hit too hard.
"Today there are modern methods so that the meter does not become a weapon against the user," he said on Telemetro Report (November 30).
Taxis in Panama are widely used by low income workers to get to jobs and the city has more taxis per capita than most cities in major economies, where it costs more to open the door of a metered cab, than it does to cross from one side of Panama to the other in one of the yellow hornets.
Commentators who have experienced the thrill of watching the dollars rack up while sitting in a traffic jam, query his assumptions on charges and wonder how low income users will react to what seems an inevitable increase in the cost of a ride.
The director of the ATTT said meters would help a large number of current users who do not know know where a road begins or ends. The taxi driver charges "what he wants" he said and: "The meter could help bring order to the system.”
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Original Source: Newsroompanama.com
Date Retrieved: November 30, 2010.
