Bike taxis in the city have had to comply with new rules for four years now: it is no longer allowed to pick up customers spontaneously on the street, a ride can only be allowed with a reservation (on -line). Now, four years later, that rule doesn’t seem to be working at all, as many drivers aren’t following it. According to the city, the number of bike racks has decreased since then, but since the rule no longer requires a permit, the wide view has almost disappeared.
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get a bike taxi on Dam Square, get in, mark your final destination and go. It shouldn’t be possible, but in a random sample it is possible to get into a bike taxi almost every time without a reservation. Officially reservation is required for four years, and the city came in 2020 by that rule. The reason for this was to prevent tourist traffic and chaos in the streets.
Taxi drivers say anonymously that they disagree with the rule. “I can’t live without the people on the street, I don’t earn enough from bookings alone,” says one of them on Rembrandtplein. A fifteen minute ride costs about thirty euros. “If I see someone standing there and I ask him to make a reservation first, he’s gone and I lose my customer. So sometimes I have to.”
“I don’t know how else to get my money, so I’ll keep doing it now”
With the introduction of the regulations, cycle taxis no longer need a licence. “Just a Chamber of Commerce number,” explained one of the drivers on the street. This is because it does not offer spontaneous service in public places, for which the license was intended. So these would not be necessary if the rule was followed, but practice shows otherwise.
As a result, the city pays less attention to how many bike taxis there are and who the drivers are. “It’s hard to say how many bike taxis there are,” said a spokesman. But the reason for that is that the street taxi service would disappear. “It happens that bicycle taxis ignore this ban or pick people up on the street. We will enforce that.”
Also ban on parking
Since March this year, 64 fines have been issued for illegally picking up customers in the city centre, the area where most bicycles circulate. “How can they see if someone has made a reservation or not if it’s not in the act,” he asked a driver waiting for a new customer.
Bike taxis are also not allowed to stop in busy areas of the center due to parking restrictions. But drivers often don’t agree with this either. The pedicabs always drive slowly around Dam Square, stopping for a moment and then making a new round: “I’m less of a burden if I wait until stop I ride very slowly,” a cyclist thinks.
The city announces that the concern is decreasing and that the number of bicycle taxis on and around Dam Square is also decreasing: “The dam is no longer full of bicycle taxis and the traffic jams are bike taxis in Damstraat and Nieuwe Doelenstraat past.”
According to the drivers, it’s impossible not to break the rules: “I don’t know how else to get my money, so I’ll keep doing it now.” Colleague: ” But if I get even more taxes, I have to stop this. That costs a lot of money already.” One of the drivers: “I think it would be good if the city thought with us. Then we might even make booked trips cheaper than spontaneous trips.”
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2024-11-05 06:05:00
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