I REFER to Mr David Soh Poh Huat's letter, "What about the elderly and handicapped?", and Mr Koh Zheng Hang's letter, "What if I have heavy baggage?" (The New Paper, 4 Mar 2008).

Apart from taxi stands and taxi stops, taxis within the CBD are allowed to pick up and drop off passengers from building driveways.

Nevertheless, we recognise that not all buildings have such driveways.

Hence, to make it more convenient for commuters and taxi drivers to adapt to the change, LTA has also increased the number of taxi stands in the CBD from 80 to 105 so that there will be one within 300m or less than a five-minute walk from any building in the CBD.

This is to ensure that a taxi stand or stop is conveniently accessible to taxi commuters. The signages at taxi stands/stops in the CBD have also been made more prominent and distinctive for easier identification.

Also, taxis picking up and dropping off passengers at taxi stands will increase the availability of taxis there.

Our key consideration in implementing the "no street hail within CBD" scheme is to enhance the safety of commuters, taxi drivers and other road users. This is especially so if commuters have heavy baggage, are elderly or handicapped. It will be safer for these commuters to board or alight from a taxi stand or building driveway, as they will typically take a longer time to do so.

For instance, baggage normally has to be put in the boot, and both driver and passenger will usually be at the back of the taxi to do this.

It will be more dangerous to do so at the kerbside along a busy street.

We understand that the public and taxi drivers will need time to adjust to this new scheme but in the interest of safety, we hope they will be able to adapt quickly.

We thank both writers for sharing their views.

Suhana Kharudin
Manager, media relations
Land Transport Authority