Sunray,Originally Posted by sunray
Here is what I wrote back in February of 2012 - and it still applies. The rural route taxi system was NOT designed with the tourist in mind. Even the Jamaica Tourist Board states on their site that "...route taxis are the primary means of transportation for the majority of people on the island, but are recommended only for the more intrepid tourist."
From Feb 2012:
"I am puzzled as to why this is such a hard thing for some to accept. This is a very simple concept folks. Perhaps the reason why some think there is no impact on the transportation needs of the local populace is that those people are here for short periods of time and have no year round experience to draw from. What happens during busy season cannot be applied to slow times, and vice versa. Or maybe they are just not paying close enough attention to the reality to discern the truth.
The current route taxi system in Jamaica was NOT DESIGNED WITH VISITORS TO THE ISLAND IN MIND. While there is no rule, no law that states a tourist cannot use the route taxis (in fact, the drivers are required to pick up everyone who wants a ride - without discrimination), there is a common sense impact that must be present when one thinks about the issue.
There are clues for everyone to see that the route taxi public transportation was NOT designed with visitors in mind. The obvious first clue is visible to every single visitor who comes out of the airport - the public transportation bus stop is OUTSIDE the airport on the main road, not inside the airport where you arrive with your baggage. You would have to haul your bags outside the airport to get the public transportation. The previous government thought about changing this policy and create a bus/taxi stop inside the airport, but decided against it after they did an impact study. It was decided that it would put undue pressure on the current system. Clue number 1.
You will also notice the lack of "take public transportation" advertisements in any of the tourist literature or billboards in the tourist areas. Clue number 2.
A cynic or conspiracy theorist may try to claim this is a ploy created by the government and ex-pats alike to force the visitor into paying for charter taxis - that they are somehow in cahoots with the charter taxis to redirect money from unsuspecting route taxi drivers. Well, I suppose they are entitled to think this, but it is no more true than was all the scare about the Y2K bug that was supposed to cripple the planet at the beginning of this century. Back then, I told everyone who was freaking about the Y2K bug to think for one second. Banks had been offering 20-30 year mortgages, and these were running well into the next century since the 70's. You think they didnt anticipate this problem a long time before 1999? Simple reality check.
As with the above, logic will let you understand the truth here and not to give much weight to some uninformed beliefs from others.
Yesterday I was at the Corner Bar in order to count the number of taxis moving by there on the West End. In less than 8 minutes, I counted 13 route taxis and 5 charter taxis pass by. There is a sharp turn there so the taxis must slow down enough for me to read the wording on the taxi. The interesting factor was that only 5 of the route taxis had West End painted on the side. The other route taxis had designations from other areas. While technically they are driving the route illegally, this does show a very simple supply/demand relationship during busy season. The MAJORITY of the route taxis operating during this very short time period were not even supposed to be on that route.
As I have mentioned previously, there are a limited number of route taxis designated for each route, such as the West End (Smith even mentioned the West End designation on the taxi). The increase in demand during busy season in Negril is now encouraging other route taxis to service the West End. In addition to possibly making some of the West End route taxis not be as full as they might have been, all the other route taxis came from other routes. So now they are not servicing their own routes - which of course would have an impact on their route passengers. The local populace that was served by these route taxis are not being served during busy season. There is an impact for those people. This is simple deductive reasoning, no grand conspiracy required.
And then we have the issue of busy vs slow season. As stated, yesterday route taxis went by at a pace of about 1 every 30 seconds. During slow season, this is not the case. Passengers can wait many minutes in order to get a ride, sometimes 15 minutes or more. So, if that single route taxi that passes by is filled with tourists trying to save pocket change on a ride, then they may have to wait an additional 15 minutes before the next ride comes by. To claim there is no impact only means someone is not paying attention to the truth.
As for questioning the source - well, I live here. I have lived in Jamaica for nearly 20 years full time. I have friends who drive route, charter and tour vehicles, so I really have no personal interest in which one makes what money. Negril.com does have tour operators as clients - but they are not being discussed in this thread. Negril.com makes no income from route or charter drivers.
But lets take a second to check the sources of some of the other information. One of the proponents of the idea that there is no impact on the local populace when tourists take route taxis just last year was stating how fun "bike taxis" are to take and that their landlord happens to drive one. I pointed out that there are no legal bike taxis on the island and no visitor should take one. They said they would check with their landlord about this as they wouldnt do something that would put tourists at risk. It is interesting that there was no further defense of the bike taxis, that indeed there are no legal bike taxis on the island. Point here being just because you believe something does not make it so.
To address CarrieBean's comment, just a few years ago there was very little if any information on the internet about the illegal white plate taxis. Negril.com went on a mission to inform visitors to this reality since it had been too long overlooked. Thanks to the efforts of this website, we have educated thousands of travelers to Jamaica about taking only red plated taxis and that information is being spread on websites all over the net. This has happened in just a few years.
While you can think that "it would never be the case" that every single tourist would take a route taxi, the truth is that there could easily be enough of them doing it to seriously change the usefulness of the route taxis for the local population."
Here is a link to the entire thread from Feb 2012:
http://negril.com/forum/showthread.p...ute+taxi+local
