This is a short fake article I came up with when I saw a taxi nearly running someone over, almost colliding with a taxi due to it suddenly stopping and looking at the bus and wondering why I even own a car.
Enjoy it!
******
There was a time when you could catch a taxi from anywhere in South Africa, stand on the corner of your street raise your hand and their was a high chance someone would stop right by your feet in a van around the world called a minibus, but in South Africa they are known to all as Taxis.
While the convenience of the Taxi was most welcome, it always came with a downside of terrible driving and a very dark history of violence. Taxis became synonymous with the words life takers, rage inducers and gangster. The cheap fares did not absolve this but it made some look past it others probably never gave much thought and took life as a tertiary resource. While the government tried step in to manage, control and regulate the taxi industry, Taxi owners responded with threats and more violence, never really trying to make a formal association.
While buses were the safer public transport option, but the delays, slow driving and limited bus stop locations always made taking the bus an option only the very few could choose.
Over the years though, the tide started to turn, as the government started focusing on renovating and improving the public transportation of buses, some even privatized. By dedicating lanes and special routes exclusive to buses and no other vehicle. This brought on a change in the public’s perspective on buses, the once unreliable, slow and limited bus was now fast, everywhere and above all safe. Buses flooded the streets, covering nearly all the roads of South Africa, you never had to wait longer than 15 minutes if you missed the previous bus. With only a few remote areas still affected by the old system. Which meant taking a car unfortunately.
However, with their success, the other side suffers. While Their cheap fares and being able to pick up and drop off anywhere were a selling point, there was no real reason to use them, There was an argument saying that you’re saving a few rand, but the majority of the public asked, “…is risking your life worth saving that few rand”?
Buses became the better choice. A safer choice. This made the taxi drivers and owners desperate, they needed money coming in and the only way to get money in was for people to get in the taxis.They lowered their fees, tried driving safer.. But the stigma attached to taxis would never leave.. So they did what no one thought they’d do.
Taxis blocked bus routes to and from places at times when people needed to get to work or get home. Only allowing fellow taxis to pass through, due to this people got out of the buses and into taxis in frustration. This lasted for a while, but the police got involved and the taxis had no way of keeping the blockades going unless they wanted to go to jail, which meant less drivers on the road.
Months later the taxi drivers and owners were left with no choice. They became dangerous.
When a taxi comes next to you and stops and he asks if you need a taxi, you would need to say yes or else you would be held at gunpoint, asked to enter the taxi, pay the travel fee and be dropped off at your requested location.
It was a crazy insane plan that worked surprisingly well. They started making money again, later forming an association that set rules and guidelines that allow Taxi drivers to “pick up” passengers, avoid the police and never steal or cross another driver. If any altercation occurred both parties or however many parties were involved would pay a fine unless one of the parties was in clear violation. It was basically what the government wanted them to have, just not the way they envisioned how it would happen.
The government eventually started taking action against the taxi owners by forming a strike force against the Taxi owners, the drivers and whomever was affiliated and condoned the violent measures they were using to “pick up” passengers.After many years of investigation and paperwork, they finally tracked down and arrested the members of the taxi association, many drivers were given the opportunity to become bus drivers, some took the jobs, others fell in love with the violent nature of taxi driving and refused, becoming rogue drivers and kidnapping people from the streets, stealing their money.
Who knows when there will be a time when taxis would be something that is just a few pages in the history books, the way I see it, it might happen sooner than I think. The one good thing I believe that came from taxis was that it forced the government and other wealthy party members to take a stand and use their money for something greater. I mean, after so many years, I can’t remember how I got into a bus that didn’t have WiFi!
Internet Things 