In the spotlight. This is how taxi drivers in the municipality of Murcia have felt in recent weeks in which they have been held partly responsible – especially from the hospitality sector – for not being able to cover the high demand for transport generated during meals. , dinners and celebrations of the Christmas holidays, a circumstance aggravated by the obstacles that cars currently face in relation to access and parking in the city center.
Not only do professionals in the taxi sector, who consider themselves unfairly treated, not share these criticisms, but they also explain that the new configuration of public roads left by the mobility works in the urban area have not only made access difficult. to the private vehicle, but have also ended up affecting their own work activity, at least at the current time.
This is a statement that may shock at first, since, 'a priori', the new bus lanes implemented in the urban area should speed up the transit of these vehicles through the main arteries of the city. In fact, thanks to these exclusive roads, they have achieved the changes and direction restrictions that private drivers have had to adapt to, for example, in the case of Teniente Flomesta or Alameda de Colón.
“We cannot avoid Gran Vía or Floridablanca Street, our routes are urban and must be the shortest,” they defend
However, business figures show that each taxi driver is performing up to 50% less services than they did before the projects were implemented. This is stated by the president of the professional association Radio Taxi Murcia, Fabio García, while emphasizing that travel times have ended up skyrocketing. “If before we had an average of between four or five trips an hour, now we are between two and three,” he remarks, recognizing that, although the time behind the wheel may be similar and is charged for it, the fewer the flag drops , lower billing and profitability per trip. «For example, we have gone from the three minutes we used to get from Morales to the Circular, to seven or eight; “Sometimes, when you arrive to pick up a passenger, sometimes, after taking the trip, they are no longer there,” he explains.
No slalom possible
But how does this square with the new exclusive infrastructures they now enjoy? «It is true that the new exclusive platforms allow us to fly a few meters, but we soon find ourselves stuck between a lane, the public transport lane, in which we sometimes follow a row of buses that, in addition, stop to leave and pick up passengers, and another, that of private traffic, which is overwhelmed with cars; “That prevents us from doing a certain slalom to continue the march,” says the representative of these professionals. Added to this is the obstacle of encountering crossed cars trying to join the road from a side street that borders the bus lane.
They ask for a new location for the Carmen station stop, because the current one requires them to reach Infante to be able to enter
«We must recognize that we encounter these types of problems especially in a few points, such as Avenida de la Constitución, Gran Vía, Miguel de Cervantes, the surroundings of the Reina Sofía and the train station, Plaza Camachos – where public transport and the car now share space – or Floridablanca street, now reaching El Rollo; In fact, in the latter the bus lane is not respected by almost any car; “But we cannot look for alternative routes, we must take our client the shortest route,” García adds.
The president of Radio Taxi recognizes that there are areas, such as Infante Don Juan Manuel, through which people circulate with great agility “but our services are generally limited to very specific urban routes that move in this central almond and that “They have the Gran Vía as the main axis from north to south.” “It would make no sense to go out on the highway, as many propose, to cross the city,” he adds, explaining that, during the week, a large part of his established clientele are “older people who travel to medical appointments in health centers, lawyers who can approach the City of Justice or travelers who have to reach the Carmen railway station.
The station circuit
In relation to this last issue, García regrets that a taxi rank has not been enabled on the side of the station, even if it were at the cost of reserving a space in its public parking lot. «The location of the current one, on the other side of Industria Street, forces us either to make an illegal maneuver, which we try to avoid, or to have to make a complete turn, practically reaching the Infante, in order to change direction, entering the surroundings of the station again from Pintor Pedro Pedro Flores,” he highlights.
The president of Radio Taxi explains that all these complaints were exposed during a recent meeting to those responsible for the Mobility Department of the Murcia City Council, who conveyed to them the intention to continue making adjustments to circulation in conjunction with the Transportation Management Plan. Urban Mobility, in order to correct “an inherited plan that is not theirs.” In this framework, actions have already been undertaken such as new traffic light regulations or the temporary implementation of the Bus-Vao lane, with the intention of giving fluidity to traffic on the Gran Vía. «We hope that they will end up improving the situation, while at the same time Many citizens choose to avoid crossing the central almond, tired of traffic jams,” concludes García.
“Christmas supply problems” already solved for the rest of the year
“It is true that we have had problems meeting demand during this Christmas, but it has been a specific weekend, motivated by the flood.” This is how the president of the professional association Radio Taxi Murcia, Fabio García, apologized for the problems that users have encountered when getting a vehicle this Christmas. García reiterates that it is difficult to channel service peaks like these, “something that happens in other large cities with large events,” but that, however, the situation has been resolved, to a large extent, during ordinary weekends.
“We have hired up to 120 drivers, with the associated expenses, to work from Thursday to Sunday and at night, to which some of the 370 self-employed people who are part of the association can also be added,” explains Fabio, highlighting the effort made to cover the service, given “that there are no minimum services established to operate during the weekend or on designated dates.” He highlights, for example, “the agility with which work is done during the Warm Up celebration, where no one waits for a car for more than 20 minutes.”
“No more licenses”
However, the president of the taxi drivers rejects that the solution to this lack of timely supply involves obtaining new licenses. “The number of taxis is proportional to the existing demand during the week, an increase in professionals can greatly affect the economic sustainability of the sector,” he defends, pointing to the need to look at other modes of transport to cover these needs. . “Large cities have night bus lines that allow the clientele to be distributed,” he emphasizes, highlighting that sometimes the massive entry of citizens to the city from the periphery cannot be encouraged if there is no adequate means for their return. to home. “Each actor must assume his share of responsibility,” he concludes.
No agreement to call off the strike in Monbus
The first mediation meeting between the bus drivers of the district lines and the service concessionaire, Monbus, concluded last Friday without an agreement, as confirmed by the president of the works council, Francisco Tomás Muñoz Frutos. There is, therefore, less than a week left for the strike called by the workers to begin, if an understanding is not reached in the coming days. It will be next Thursday when the final conciliation act will take place in the offices of the Autonomous Community and will be preceded by the protest planned in La Glorieta between 9 a.m. and 11 a.m. If a solution is not found in said act, the minimum services must be set for a strike scheduled between December 30 and January 7. The strike is motivated by various labor discrepancies, which have been resolved with the replacement of the Gran Vía bus lane with another bus lane and the sudden implementation of a special night service with just 24 hours' notice.
#Taxi #drivers #perform #services #hour #Murcia #mobility #works