Bangkok:- The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration has admitted that its Smart Taxi Stands project has failed but the stands will not be demolished.

Traipop Khantayaporn, director of the Traffic System Development Davison of the BMA’s Traffic and Transport Department, said the stands will be further developed to be put in good use for public services.

Traipop said the project was launched in 2005 by then BMA governor Apirak Kosayothin.

The project provided roadside spots for taxis to park to wait for passengers. In case, no taxi is available, passengers can press a button and the system will alert taxis, which are members of the network, through GPS navigation system. There is also a panel for passengers to monitor the location of taxis that are coming to pick them up.

The operator of the service is allowed to have an advertisement board at each stand in exchange.

Traipop said the system became a failure because when passengers pressed the button, other taxis on the street pick them up before those on the network could reach the scene, prompting taxis to leave the network. The problems prompted passengers to stop using the stands eventually.

Tripop said the 150 stands are in several districts in the capital, including Phra Nakhon, Ratchathewi, Pathumwan, Bang Rak, and Pomprab.

He said the stands will not be demolished but they will be developed to allow passengers to wait for taxis with more convenience and safety. The BMA will make the stand safer by installing security cameras.

Some stands will turn into a bicycle parking facility. Other stands will remain taxi stands with smart panels that displays online maps of Bangkok streets with current traffic information.

Tripop said passengers can enter destinations on the map and the system will display estimated fare and travelling time, for example.

A BMA initiative failed?????.I can hardly believe it!

What a waste of taxes that was. Now they want to spend more.

I don't see how the system failed. You press a button to get a taxi and wait. Other taxi drivers saw you waiting and came to pick you up. So it worked better than it should have because people were getting picked up faster.

Now get to the point of the system failing. Drivers who paid into the scheme were leaving it as the passengers were gone before they got there. So no money was coming in for the stand operators.

So a system designed to get passengers from A 2 B- A.S.A.P. is scrapped despite getting passengers from A 2 B quicker than it should because of money.

Passengers were never really part of the plan.

Go on - who will be first to mention the not-so-smart taxi drivers?

I don't see how the system failed. You press a button to get a taxi and wait. Other taxi drivers saw you waiting and came to pick you up. So it worked better than it should have because people were getting picked up faster.

Now get to the point of the system failing. Drivers who paid into the scheme were leaving it as the passengers were gone before they got there. So no money was coming in for the stand operators.

So a system designed to get passengers from A 2 B- A.S.A.P. is scrapped despite getting passengers from A 2 B quicker than it should because of money.

Passengers were never really part of the plan.

The passengers getting picked up had nothing to do with them pressing the button. That's how it failed

Go on - who will be first to mention the not-so-smart taxi drivers

You win, dammit.

He said the stands will not be demolished but they will be developed to allow passengers to wait for taxis with more convenience and safety.

Public conveniences, sound like a good idea.

It has never been clearer than someone knew someone who could receive the contract to provide all these stands that, with the thousands of taxis patrolling the streets, never had any chance of working. Any five year old could have told them that while someone was waiting for the taxi they called another 10 would pass by before it came. They even blocked off the lay-bys at some places, such as outside Pantip Plaza, so taxis couldn't stop there anyway. Mind-boggling incompetence. Or to be more accurate, mind-boggling corruption, because no-one could have been stupid enough to believe the scheme would work - except politicians who never actually use taxis because they have their own driver to ferry them around.