A taxi app produced by the Land Transport Authority (LTA) has been released today, and it promises to bring commuters and taxi drivers in Singapore closer.
Don’t be mistaken, LTA’s Taxi-Taxi @ SG is not a third-party taxi-booking smartphone app — think of it as more of a broadcaster and receiver of location information. Commuters are able to switch on the app and check if there are available taxis nearby, with the app showing the location of all available taxis from the 28,000 taxis registered in Singapore.
With that information, folks can decide if they’d like to continue waiting for a taxi on the street, walk to another location with more taxis, book a taxi or make alternative transport arrangements. Commuters can also send out a beacon through the app, broadcasting their current locations so that cab drivers can find out where there is high demand for taxis.
“Commuters who wish to hail a taxi can get a quick sense of the number of available taxis near them, and decide whether it may be better to book a taxi instead,” says LTA’s Group Director for Innovation and Infocomm Technology Rosina Howe-Teo. “Meanwhile, taxi-drivers can find out where there is high demand for taxis and reduce empty cruising.”
Already, detractors have belittled the app as being completely unnecessary — the general complaint being that it only displays nearby cabs instead of doing anything substantial. “I take between 4-10 taxi rides a day for work and this app is about as useful as a third nipple. LTA should come clean with how much of taxpayers’ monies was wasted on something so redundant,” remarks Glenn Goh in a Facebook comment.
Taxi-Taxi@SG is free and now available for download for both iOS and Android users.
Photo: Joshua Eckert via Flickr
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