Local cabbies clutching at straws with plan for on-board cameras
Hong Kong taxis have a bad reputation – and for good reason; introducing CCTV will not curb the demand for premium services
The plan is not only too little too late, it’s no more than a public relations gimmick. It will start with 10 taxis and expand to 2,000 in a year. Right! The city has 18,000 taxis. How will it improve overall service at such a slow pace?
Most complaints against taxis have to do with overcharging, taking longer-than-necessary routes, and cherry-picking and refusing passengers. But what really gets me is the terrible hygiene conditions inside many taxis and the passive-aggressive silent treatment from drivers, so you never know if they have actually heard you. And then there is the sudden braking, enough to make a sailor seasick, and the terrible driving that sometimes borders on being dangerous.
Other than not charging according to the meter, It’s hard to see how CCTV would help address any of these problems.
On one trip with my family, I took the front passenger seat. The driver didn’t like our destination, so he turned the volume of the radio up really loud and applied the brakes liberally.