Due
to my work I visit Bucharest quite regularly. A fascinating city
that I would recommend to anyone. But during the last few trips I
have paid particular attention to one aspect of life there that I
wanted to highlight here: taxis.
Taxis
in Bucharest are licensed, but prices are not regulated. Rather they
are freely set by market conditions, and each taxi will have the
price/km printed on its yellow side for all potential customers to
see.
What
I find even more interesting is how taxis are booked. Hailing one
off the street is not recommended as there are apparently some dodgy
operators around, as is the case in just about every city. Instead,
everyone has an app on their phone by which they can book a taxi to
their location. Once they have logged a request, a driver will
propose to provide the ride. With the proposal you can see the
driver's picture as well as scores (1-5 stars) that previous clients
have given him and choose whether to accept the offer or wait for
another one. A colleague of mine regularly rejects drivers if she
does not like the look of them and a new proposal will appear almost
immediately. It is almost like being on Tinder (or that is how it
appears to someone like me who has never been on Tinder but finds the
concept fascinating).
Sounds
familiar? I predict that Uber will not even try to penetrate the
Bucharest market, as the local players are already playing their
game, and with apparent success.
A
well-functioning taxi market is in my opinion an essential part of
urban planning that aims at reducing car ownership and encourages
people to use other modes of transport instead. We simply do not
have enough space in city centres for people to park their cars
(which is what a privately owned car will be doing most of the time –
being parked).
Geneva
is trying to address the threat posed to the highly regulated and
even more highly priced taxi market by suing Uber and trying to get
it banned. Bucharest is taking another route: learning what it is
about Uber that customers seem to love so much and shamelessly
copying it.
You
can guess which approach has my vote …
What
is the approach in your city? Something even better?
