São Paulo Mayor vetoes communal taxi bylaw

São Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad (PT) vetoed a municipal bylaw passed by City Council at the end of last year which would have permitted communal taxis to operate on defined routes in the city carrying up to a maximum of 4 passengers. The scheme would have seen taxis starting out at fixed points with routes of about 10 Km. (max.) which would operate from 6 am until midnight Monday through Saturday.

In his written reasoning, Haddad stated that he feared that the system would bring back a situation that existed in the 90s when communal taxis turned into collective vans, most of which were clandestine, and competed with the public transportation buses.

Proponent of the system Councilman Ricardo Young stated, when the bill was passed, "that the bill was intended to provide incentive to use taxis as a form of public transport." He further stated that, "since taxis already are using bus corridores, they should be better utilized to reduce cost for the population."

A similar system is used in the downtown area of Belo Horizonte, and taxis follow set bus routes, they pick up passengers at regular bus stops and charge about 30 cents above the regular bus fare. It is intended to accommodate those passengers who were making very short trips, thus relieving the congestion on regular buses and providing more space for those who were making longer trips to the outlying neighborhoods.

The system in Belo Horizonte works exceptionally well, and there is absolutely no reason to believe that it wouldn't work just as well in São Paulo and have provided much needed relief to those trying to cope with an already inefficient and overcrowded bus transportation system.

Obviously Haddad either just doesn't care about the suffering and inconvenience of those who elected him to his office and their needs, or he is more concerned about protecting his cronies who head up the various consortiums that presently make up the public transportation system, preserving their profits while providing substandard services. At any rate he certainly dropped the ball on this issue. We'll have to wait two more years to see if his stellar lack of leadership will cost him the next election.

Cheers,
James       Expat-blog Experts Team