With less than one month to go before the presidential election, the rival political parties have been pouring out a barrage of populist pledges to woo voters.
One of the sugar-coated policies was about a draft revised bill to include taxis as public transportation approved unanimously by the National Assembly Land, Transport and Maritime Affairs Committee last Thursday in a show of rare unity by the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Democratic United Party (DUP).
The bill, which is due to receive approval by the Assembly Friday after passing the Legislation and Judiciary Committee, envisions giving taxis the same subsidies that buses and subways receive from central and local governments.
Given that granting the status of public transportation to taxis is unprecedented in any country in the world, this bill should be withdrawn immediately. Instead, the parties need to come up with a comprehensive package of viable and realistic measures to salvage the nation’s ailing taxi industry.
Whether to allow taxis to use the bus-only central lanes has not been contained in the draft bill, but transport experts say this would be possible once taxis are classified as public transportation. If taxis are allowed to use the bus-only lanes, it would mean a nightmare for bus commuters. Considering that nearly 70,000 taxis are in operation in Seoul alone, the bus-only lanes, which are now exclusively used by about 8,000 buses, will be rendered useless.
There is no denying that the taxi industry, especially taxi drivers, is in dire trouble because of weaker demand amid the constant rise in the number of subway and bus commuters. That more people drive their own cars to work is also blamed for a slump in the taxi industry.
The government deserves blame for having over-issued taxi licenses to win the hearts and minds of drivers ahead of elections. Currently, there are about 250,000 taxis across the nation ― 160,000 run by individuals and 90,000 by companies. Experts argue that at least 50,000 taxis must be removed right now to alleviate the supply glut problem even partly.
Taxis could be called public transportation, seen from fares ― basic taxi fares in Seoul remain at 2,400 won, double the bus fares, compared with Tokyo where taxi fares are nearly four times higher than bus fares. Taxi fares have been curbed by the central and local governments which fear their negative impact on price stability.
If the Assembly passes the bill, at least 2 trillion won in taxpayers’ money must be provided to taxis a year that are usually used by relatively well-to-do persons. Even now, the taxi industry is receiving 760 billion won in fuel subsidies a year along with tax benefits.
The first step to find solutions to the taxi problem should be to address its root causes ― the supply glut and low taxi fares. Specifically, what is needed is to make taxis ``high-quality’’ transportation, not public transportation.