Taxi drivers and officials at stalemate over new rule

China Daily, January 13, 2011

However, many local taxi drivers argued that the move would not solve the problems primarily because there would be more taxis on the road than were needed.

Tang Jie, president of the labor union of the city's urban public transport department, told China National Radio (CNR) that the new regulation was intended to increase the supply of taxis to meet the needs of the city's rapidly expanding population.

Government officials, including the city's Public Security Bureau Director Huang Baowei and Vice-Major Zhang Jianhui, discussed the regulation with tens of taxi drivers' representatives on Saturday, an unidentified official told Beijing News, adding that the main point debated was whether the regulation should be abolished.

The next day the government made the decision to send police officers, with transport department workers, to ensure taxi drivers were working, the official said.

Many residents and drivers had complained that the policymakers ignored the fact that more taxis on the streets would worsen traffic conditions.

"It's impossible to move with so many cars on the streets," a taxi driver surnamed Li told Beijing News.

"It just creates more traffic congestion," Li said. "Now it takes me an hour to drive a passenger to a destination which usually takes 15 minutes."

Chen Hongbo, assistant researcher at the department of urban development and environment studies with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said a set of supporting measures should be introduced as well as increasing the number of taxis, Beijing News reported.

The government should think about setting up more gasoline stations and parking sites to make taxi services more efficient, Chen added.