- In the US (New Jersey) the government will literally pay you (ableit in petrol money) to carpool. (link found via the consumerist)
- In the UAE, carpooling requires registration in order for it to be legal (I'd say that you have to pay to carpool, but that depends on whether you have to pay to register)
Choose the better option, share your opinion in the comments section...
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16 comments:
lol, what's this Sam: Carpool quiz for dummies :) Lo and behold, I chose the NJ law!
like i have a choice
It's the same, in both cases the citizens of both countries get the money.
I've just posted about the confusion the RTA is creating, and in the story they say that registration will be free. But we don't have to register. Or maybe we do.
I think they deliberately create confusion so that they can fine people at will.
'anonymous'
In the US, the govt pays.
In the UAE, the user pays (in case of registration fees).
Just how exactly is it the same?
Not very good at ' Understanding English' in school were we?
Dumbo.
I don't know if I read it right but KT said they are thinking of encouraging companies to provide transport for the staff by bus/van by exempting these from salik if so then it will be the "first positive step" to solve the traffic congestion.
-FR
"Johnny no stars"
Just to make it Clear,
in US, Americans get paid by government.
in UAE, you pay the government, Government pays it to UAE citizens, as a free electricity, free water, free land, cheaper telephone calls, higher salaries.
you cannot compare apples with oranges.
We all know that here, carpooling is equal to working as a taxi driver, which is illegal !!
proud emirati,
No, we don't know that. Carpooling is carpooling. Lifts and illegal taxis are those who offer their services on alwaseet and whatnot. There are plenty and they fill a gap created by the lack of professionalism exhibited by the current taxi drivers (a far cray from how things were 2-3 years ago).
We offer some of our staff transportation. It would be great if that makes us exempt from Salik.. but I highly doubt that to be the case. No biggie, we'll live.
Sam, I referred to the NJ thing back in May 20th on my blog and linked to it here.. how can you credit the consumerist.. bah! :)
You know what? I started to write a comment on this and it turned into a post!
Why on EARTH is there this fear of illegal taxis? I rather like the idea!
Regulating competition out of an underserved market is a short term solution!
proud emirati: so the hell what if its illegal? provided the RTA did their job and there were working bus routes that weren't 3 years late and totally over capacity there would be literally no private taxi's. In any case the key word is 'private', if people want to get in a car and pay money, good for them.
And no, this isn't apples and oranges; I've heard RTA inspectors get 18k/month, imagine how many inspectors they need to monitor private taxi's? I know for a fact that they also work with the police/CID to crack down on private taxis... what a waste of money, take that money and give it to people to give them an incentive to carpool.
The RTA blabbers on about trying to get people to use alternative means of transportation while at the same time arresting them, it's patently obvious the RTA is not actually trying to reduce congestion, they're just trying to create more rules that look quite ridiculous to many.
It may all be fine for people who have cars; but there are thousands of people in Dubai who do not have money for cars, they take busses, busses come late, so they take private taxis, but thats not allowed, so what is the solution then?
dubai entrepreneur: I read about it on the consumerist first /:
It's not actually that unique of a concept in quite a few places, it's just a pity the RTA is so limited that they can't come up with even a slight incentive for people to share cars, instead they police it and act like it's some sort of a problem (because congestion 24/7 and no public transportation obviously isn't the issue here)
johhny no stars: I'm so happy for you; comment deleted, and please don't write another like it.
and another example of the RTA;
If they really wanted people to change working hours then they would've made salik so it was not 24/7.
Samuraisam & Dubai Entrepreneur, I totally support carpooling but I do have issues with making it a part-time job.
And we all know that u cannot have a job part/full time unless you have a visa for that particular job approved by your sponser and/or have a business license from the economical development department.
So who is now breaking the law?
proud emirati,
I don't think we disagree. What is happening is that the way the RTA is going about it is not going to work. Instead of introducing legislation to regulate something you will never be able to regulate, it is probably better to provide incentive to carpool and less incentive to use illegal taxi's.
There is a very real reason why illegal taxis exist. Lack of options and cost come to mind. So, provide cheaper real alternatives and people will no longer use illegal taxis.. which in turn will make them a thing of the past.
It certainly more practical than what they are trying to do now.
PE, I think the visa issue is the issue central to so many things here. Where I come from (where the weather is bloody cold so that's why I don't live there now) if you need to earn a bit more money on the side you set up a little business, or you take a part time job, or as a kid you deliver newspapers or set up a cookie stand outside your house.
Here the government feels a need to interfere in the minutae of everyone's loves. For example, we've just been told that our gardener is no longer allowed to wash cars. Why the hell is it the government's business if our gardener also washes our car? No more than its their business who rides in my car!
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