Anonymous - 4-11-2003 at 10:47 PM
Taxis would be replaced by buses
By Sandra Dibble
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 11, 2003
TIJUANA ? Police used tear gas yesterday to disperse hundreds of taxi drivers who stormed City Hall to protest transportation reforms that would
eventually replace their cabs with buses.
Angry that they were barred from a City Council meeting, the taxistas shattered the glass doors at the main entrance as they tried to force their way
inside. More than 200 police officers were called in, some in riot gear, to control the angry crowd.
The afternoon demonstration was the strongest yet over a series of reforms enacted since Mayor Jes?s Gonz?lez Reyes took office in 2001. The reforms
aim to phase out nearly 6,000 taxis that follow established routes and for decades have formed the backbone of the city's transportation system.
Critics say the taxi-based system is antiquated, expensive and poorly planned. But drivers say the system not only carries residents to every nook and
cranny of this sprawling city of 1.5 million, but serves as a source of income for many families.
"What are we going to do? What's going to happen to 10,000 families?" asked cabby Daniel Jim?nez, 38, a leader of the gold-and-white taxis that ferry
passengers between downtown Tijuana and Otay Mesa.
Tijuana's transportation system has been in dire need of reform for years. But making changes has meant taking on powerful unions linked to Mexico's
once-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI. Though Tijuana is run by President Vicente Fox's National Action Party, or PAN, unions
controlled by the PRI exert a strong influence over transportation through unionized taxi drivers.
"From the perspective of the user, the public transportation system is expensive and a disaster," said Tonatiuh Guill?n L?pez, a specialist in
municipal reform at the Colegio de la Frontera Norte. But because of the political sensitivity of the issue, he said PAN governments have until
recently refrained from taking on the problem.
The immediate issue yesterday was approval of a transportation master plan. As several hundred angry taxistas stood outside, Gonz?lez and the City
Council met in their chambers. Alejandra Santos, a city spokeswoman, said the mayor barred the drivers from the meeting because they had threatened to
disrupt it.
Council members finally approved the plan in a 9-5 vote. They split along party lines, with PAN members supporting the plan while members of the PRI
and left-of-center Party of the Democratic Revolution voted against it. A council member from the leftist Workers Party abstained.
"This seems to me to be the last gasps of a transportation monster that refuses to die," the mayor said. "But fortunately, the master plan will end
the control ... of these groups in favor of the population."
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Photo:
Tijuana police officers in riot gear blocked the entrance to City Hall yesterday after hundreds of taxi drivers shattered the glass doors. The cabbies
tried to force their way into a City Council meeting to protest transit reforms that would replace their cabs with buses.
Photo by JOHN GIBBINS
Braulio - 4-20-2003 at 10:49 AM
Hola -
I've always liked TJ's system of route taxis - you can get all the way across town for under a buck. In fact they go all the way to Rosarito Beach.
The article didn't mention what they intended to replace them with - does anyone here know?
Typical - find a system that serves the people and the governmental bureaucrats while find a way to screw it up.
Braulio
Braulio - 4-20-2003 at 10:53 AM
Just read the headline - I guess they plan on replacing them with buses. That way the governmental type can control the income better.
No way am I going to get on a bus in the middle of nowhere in TJ at night.
TJ taxis are free enterprise at it's best - what a waste.
Braulio
I don't know about TJ's taxis......
Stephanie Jackter - 4-20-2003 at 12:14 PM
so I'd be talking out of my hat to address the specific issue of this article. But I'd love to see more bus transportation in other Baja cities like
La Paz and Cabo. In La Paz the cabbies are really nice guys. I know a ton of them from visiting over the years. It's one of those professions where
fathers pass the jobs to sons. They are pretty honest and respectable, but they are a syndicate with a lot of power and charge an arm and a leg to
get around town and to the beaches and hotel outside of town. Unless it's Semana Santa or Sundays during the summer, you hardly see locals at the
beaches at all, partly because no buses run and they haven't got access. - Stephanie
Dave - 4-21-2003 at 08:27 PM
Braulio's right. I've never had to wait more than five minutes to get a taxi. Try that with a bus. In TJ taxis are efficient, cheap and they will stop
anywhere you like. One question:
Where are they going to find replacements when needed? The manufacturers aren't making station wagons anymore, are they?