With the introduction of Dubai’s Salik toll in taxi fares from mid-January 2013, commuters in the emirate will have to shell out an additional between 5 and 20 per cent of their taxi fares.
Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) on Wednesday said it had decided to re-apply the toll gate (Salik) to all taxis from the middle of January 2013.
The RTA said it will also offer taxi passengers the option to pass under any of Salik toll gates in Dubai. Such options may include a detour through one of the parallel roads, but as anyone travelling by taxi would know, a detour might well save them the Dh4 Salik tab, but they might end up incurring more by way of the additional kilometres the cab has to travel to reach the same destination.
Average Dubai taxi fares are Dh1.60 per kilometre, which means that the money saved through taking a detour would get nullified if a cab has to drive around an additional 2.5km to avoid Salik. And if the taxi takes a longer detour, the passenger will eventually end up paying more than if he’d stuck to the Salik road.
Then the whole argument of saving time by travelling while remaining on the major highways (read: Sheikh Zayed Road) that have no signals comes into play – while every commuter will have to take his own call, it seems that the alternatives may be less exciting than passing through the Salik’s gates.
Not surprising, then, Dubai residents took to Twitter to share their disappointment with the news that Salik toll charges will be reintroduced to taxi fares.
They called it an ‘unpleasant New Year’s gift’ from the Roads and Transports Authority, and have urged the authority to reconsider its plans.
This isn’t the first time that Salik will be introduced on taxis. The charge was first levied on taxis in July 2007, but was discontinued in December 2008 after customer complaints.
Earlier, however, most complaints were from tourists who thought that the manual addition of Salik fares by cab drivers was akin to cheating. Now, though, the system will be automated, negating the need for cab drivers to interfere in the meters.
“The addition of the Salik toll will be fully automated i.e. the system will add Dh4 as Salik Gate toll without any intervention on the part of the taxi driver; which will render the application of the procedures highly transparent and hassle-free,” said Eisa Abdul-Rahman Al Dosari, CEO of RTA Public Transport Agency.
Yet, as news broke, many residents took to social media sites to voice their views.
Jason S wrote: “So Salik is going to be reintroduced to taxi fares... This didn’t work before, why bring it back again? It’s public transport.”
Abdul Wahab added his two-bit, writing: “Are these new and improved Salik charges an effort to encourage us to use the metro and avoid roads in general?”
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