Why Are Baht Bus Taxis In Pattaya Four Times Bangkok Taxis?

[Morty]

So what would happen if taxis were available in Pattaya?

Obviously they would be cruising around where the customers are, along Beach Rd, Second Rd and Jomtien Beach Rd, exactly the same areas where the Baht busses are cruising, making traffic even worse.

They would also struggle to get customers as flag fall is 35Baht compared to 5-10Baht for a short Baht bus ride, ok, with three passengers in the Taxi the fare is more even.

You would not see any taxis cruising around Thepprasit, Third Rd or East of Sukhumvit.

What would happen if you flagged a taxi on beach rd and wanted to go home, somewhere east of Sukhumvit rd?

Obviously the driver would decline or ask for something like 200Baht as 9 times out of 10 he would have to drive empty back to city. Same deal as in Bangkok when the driver is not interested to go to your destination.

Ok, the choice of taxis would be nice but the only way it would work would be to have a few Taxi depots around the city where they waited for customers and the possibility of calling for a taxi. Cruising taxis, like in Bangkok, would not be economical for the drivers and would completely clog up the already bad traffic.

I understand that in BKK, sometimes when you get a driver about to leave his shift, he won't take you to a location an hours drive from where he's supposed to deliver his car, not considering the potential standstill at the roads (taxi's in BKK are rented by the day/hour by the driver). This, hovever will never be the case in PTY since the distanses are much shorter, and the congestion on the roads are far less eminent.

I guess for tourists wenturing beach road, sai song or sai sam the bathbusses are adequate, but for ppl. living here they're a nightmare.

At least thats my experience

but then again, I don't use'em EVER!

[ZZZ]

ZZZ, you don't know that. You don't know that there isn't a demand outside the main tourist areas.

I know that if there was a demand you would already have baht busses doing these routes more often. You do see baht busses on 3rd road and Thepprasit but not very often and they are never full, no customers, no service.

And, yes, taxi meters that you call are also good and used in cities like Pattaya all over the world. I really don't understand the resistance to this idea. In fact, the idea that a city the size of Pattaya does not have taxis is really the radical idea and obviously caused by artificial dark forces, and not natural supply and demand.

I do like the idea of taxis but not cruising taxis as they would completely clog up the system. Four to five strategically located depots, along the baht bus lines, where they wait for customers and a central phone booking system would be nice. Start with a few taxis and add more licenses as required but don't let everyone and his uncle get a license, keep it under control.

The only place I have ever had a driver that wont turn on the meter in Bangkok is Silom and you can walk a few minutes to get a metered one. You are correct, there are times taxis don't want to go where you want to go. With a stong city government, that could be stopped with fines for drivers who won't take passengers; I know this is not done in Thailand, but perhaps an international city like Pattaya would be a good first place to try.

Pattaya would be a bit different as it sounds like most prospective users are people living east of Sukhumvit who would like to use the service to get back home in the evenings. In this case the fare with a taxi would more than likely be more than they can negotiate with the Baht busses today. In Bangkok you are seldom far from another fare, in Pattaya many fares would be towards Siam Country Club and then empty for the 30 min ride back to city. Taxi service is a business and must make money.

A dynamic you are conveniently ignoring is that with this idea, baht buses are still running which provide strong and cheaper competition to taxis in the heaviest routes, so it is quite possible there would be more taxis in other areas not served by baht buses. Aside from tourists, there are many people who live in Pattaya who don't have a vehicle who would find regular needs for taxis all over the area.

Like I said before, taxis will not start cruising the empty areas, why should they? there are no customers there! No; set-up depots with waiting taxis along the baht bus lines and scrap half the baht bus licenses to make the traffic more manageble.

[Humphrey Bear]

Please explain why anyone is obligated to provide cheap, comfortable, convenient transportation to you anywhere you want to go, even if it is economically not viable to do so?

What socialist country are you a refugee from?

TH

Any civilised country has a reasonable transport system, except Thailand. I have worked in Indonesia, Vietnam and Malaysia and had little or no trouble finding the local transport network and how it works. Intercity bus or train in LOS is OK, but within most cities there is no organised cheap decent transport.

This forces people who can afford it to buy cars, even when any economics student would say that this is a luxury (non-practical) item.

Pay 300,000 baht for a three year old small saloon - minimum. Fuel, maintenance and depreciation over the next five years costs another 640,000. (30 litres fuel per day, two minor and one major service per year, resale value only 100,000 baht).

Just under a million baht in five years. Two hundred thousand per year. One thousand times a two hundred baht round trip to Eastern Pattaya. That's three trips a day, and the two hundred baht (one hundred each way) would be possible if you dealt with one taxi driver (or one cooperative).

So, no hassles with parking, no hassles with driving and not having to drink, no hassles. But you can, as I have written before in another thread, pick up business cards of the "Limos" that offer airport rides and make the same sort of arrangement, provided you can give them sufficient business.

[begsaresponse]

Personally outside of high season I find baht bus drivers charge reasonable prices when hiring them as a 'taxi'. This in my experience completely changes when high season dawns upon us. They attempt to charge crazy prices that I do not pay.. I have walked home rather than pay 200 - 250 baht.

However not all baht bus drivers attempt to charge such prices and remain fiar even in High season.