A page 1 photo in the 11 Sept. 1975 edition of The Caymanian Compass showed Charles Bothwell in the driver’s seat of his metered taxi, one of only two cars so equipped. Dickie Brown, the other driver who had installed a meter, was looking through the window of Bothwell’s car as he talked on his radio. The drivers said that passengers had been “extremely pleased” with the meter system.
Mike Simmons, president of the Lions Club of Grand Cayman, was one of three men attacked while in Grenada for the global service organisation, according to a front-page story. Citing the Daily Gleaner of Jamaica. the article said the men were “attacked by a group of thugs”, as they were leaving a party. Simmons was hit in the face with a bottle and stabbed in his left side. The men were rushed to hospital, and then flown to Port of Spain in Trinidad. Simmons eventually went back to Cayman.
Following on from last week’s story about the man who pleaded guilty to driving while disqualified and without insurance, the Compass reported on his sentencing. Stipendiary Magistrate Jim Shaw noted the defendant had “a young child on the way”, adding, “I am sure you have other fine qualities; but it seems that when you get behind the wheel of a car, you are ‘something else’.” He disqualified the driver, who had been chased by the police at 95 miles per hour, for 10 years.
A section of the editorial also touched on road safety, advising that with schools reopening, “it is imperative that motorists now keep their eyes peeled constantly for children along the roads”.
Dr. Steve Tomlinson was guest of honour at a farewell party, as he was heading off to Glasgow to specialise in obstetrics, gynaecology and surgery, after working at George Town Hospital for six months. He planned to return to Cayman in four years, with hopes of remaining here for a long period.
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Yet here we are, 50 years later. None of our taxis have meters.
Why not? Isn’t there an app for that?
Fifty years ago the first metered cabs were introduced to Cayman. It did not catch on. In the late 1990s another drive (pardon the pun) was initiated by a few taxi drivers to have meters installed as a standard.
Since the 1980s, Owen Roberts International Airport had established set fares to popular destinations, calculated by mileage, but these applied only to dispatches from the airport, not to fares “on the street”. At that time, ORIA’s taxi rules were the only form of “regulations” which existed for taxi operators and applied only to cabs operating from the airport….the Public Transport Board and its administrative arm, the PT Unit did not exist.
My role in the 1990s at CAA (operator of the airport before CIAA existed) involved oversight over taxi operations, thus I was curious how the proposed meters worked…i.e. accuracy in comparison to the airport’s set fares. I arranged live demonstrations to varying destinations from three different taxi operators who had installed meters and after my rides, I was convinced that the accuracy of the meters was satisfactory, so as to allow the CAA to endorse the requirement of taxi meters as a standard to the now-existing PTB, which it did.
In 2003, the requirement for meters in every cab was enshrined in the Traffic Law, but here we are in 2025 with no metered cabs. Why?
Why? Because Regulations governing the use of meters (calibration, etc) have NOT been written as yet! Also, there was a major ‘flap’ involving the issuance of related support contracts; at least one company was identified as suitably qualified but it was never put out to tender.
Since that time, we’ve had 2 Directors of the Public Transport Unit, the present postholder being there 20 years or more. Yet, this administrative department responsible for managing public transport has NOT YET delivered regulations for the use of taxi meters!
Minister Jay, what does the PTU Director do? No, not what’s his job, we know that. What does he do??
Fifty years of “progress” in a nutshell.