Iteachdetroit,
I assume from your name that you are indeed a teacher, that you know that we always can learn new things and the power of knowledge.
Late last year, a couple of extremely well traveled and experienced visitors to Negril were robbed in what they thought was a "normal" route taxi. As it has turned out, it was a stolen taxi and the driver and passenger were up to no good. Here is a link to one of the two threads that were running at that time. Please read it in detail -there is some useful advice being posted.
http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...put#post112959
Essentially, only you can make the decision if the pocket change you save is worth the safety risk. With many thing we do in life we are essentially making safety risk decisions. Should I drive to work going this route or that route? Should I buy this medication or wait out the illness? Was that sushi made by a competent chef? But the risks can be minimized.
By taking down the phone numbers of the drivers listed in our transportation section (we personally know all of them) and having them handy and giving them a call while you are taking the last couple sips of your cold drink is every bit as convenient as a route taxi. Sure it will cost you a dollar or two more - but how much is peace of mind and safety worth to you? You wont have the joy of having random strangers possibly sit on your lap, but such is life. There are trade offs.
I will sum this up as I did that last thread with these words I wrote to a different poster:
"While you say no disrespect is intended, it seems that your previous comment in this thread lends one to believe that I have an ulterior motive. Believe what you want and travel how you want. But to answer your question, I have heard of too many incidents around the island involving tourists, even though one is still too many.
Negril is a rather small town with a population hovering around 5000 and receives lesser numbers of visitors to the island than MoBay or Ocho Rios, so the number of incidents here are relatively small. But there have been incidents reported all around the island, in Hanover (not Negril), several in St James, a few more in the north coast areas and of course Kingston.
There are visitors to Negril who everyday rent scooters and feel perfectly safe and "in no danger" as you state you feel about the route taxis. There are scooter rentals all over Negril and tourists do rent them. But this month alone we have seen and talked to 4 sets of visitors who gotten serious cases of road rash which put an obvious damper on their vacation. All professed to have rented them in the past and knew the "runnings" and yet they ended up hurt. Bad things can happen to good people.
As I have stated, the majority of route taxi operators are hard working, honest and decent drivers trying to make a living. But you, as a visitor, do not have the years and years of daily experience with the route taxi system that all Jamaicans living here have - it is second nature to them. They instinctively know which taxis to use and not to get in, they were taught this as a child. There is no visitor to the island that has that same ability, and sometimes that even fails experienced Jamaicans.
So, by all means, go ahead and think you are in no danger at all using random route taxis. They are not allowed to refuse you, it is against the law. But would you have known not to get into the Lilliput route taxi? Would you have even noticed the Lilliput wording and known what it meant?
There is a system that has been put in place by the Jamaican government and JTB to directly serve the needs of those visitors to our beautiful island.
I can no more recommend that visitors use the route taxi system, which was designed with the local populace in mind than I can recommend walking through the unlit areas of the beach at night.
It is simply not wise advice."
