As a motorist who has been involved in many near-misses with taxis stopping or swerving into other lanes dangerously, I believe the crux of the problem lies more in taxi drivers trying to pick up passengers rather than stopping to let them alight. Perhaps we need to consider the reasons for such indiscriminate swerving or stopping.

Taxi drivers make sudden swerves or stops as a reaction when they see a prospective passenger flag them down or come into their view. This problem is compounded by the fact that many drivers of empty taxis tend to drive very fast in their search for the next pick-up.

Consider the other scenario. Passengers who are about to alight will have already told the driver their destination way in advance, so the cabby will be able to line up his taxi like any other vehicle arriving at a destination, with no need for any sudden swerves or stops.

This being the case, the most logical and practical solution to this problem is simply to bar commuters from flagging down taxis along any road, other than at designated taxi pick-up points. Passengers should be allowed to alight wherever they want, as long as it is not a no-stop zones or where it is deemed unsafe to do so.

An added benefit of this is that it discourages commuters who cut ahead of others already waiting for cabs.

Nor Azam Ahmad