Since when did the HK government give a shit about what is to the benefit of the people?You are very correct. Just had a chat with the person in the Transport Bureau responsible for Taxi policy and he indicated they have no direction at all from their seniors to make significant improvements.
They are going to implement their very limited Premium Taxi service which will give drivers a proper employment contract and a minimum wage and they firmly believe this is a big step in the right direction. Although to a layman it just looks like a scheme to give 3 favoured taxi licence operators more money.
There are NO plans or studies in place to make any other improvements or deregulation. The Bureau also firmly believe there are more than sufficient taxis in Hong Kong. Given taxi mileage is up something like 50% in the last 7 years this is a strange belief to hold with no data to back it up.
The issue is at the executive level of government who do not set target or goals for the bureaus to achieve with policy proposals that can then be reviewed and enacted.
CY Leung's obsession with the mainland is the issue. So yes we can blame this one on the mainlanders also....