Life on the Spot! Life and Leisure in Doha, Qatar

Here are some comments by one of our readers (Mr. Johnson) regarding Karwa Services:

Hi,
I would say Karwa messed up big-time.

Taxi should have been a service for the "not-so-rich" or the lay man who cannot afford to own a car but cannot afford to wait for the bus or is carrying a little bit of luggage.

The problems with KARWA (whether the owners want to acknowledge it or not)are:
1. High fares.
2. Low availability.
3. Cars which are not fuel-savings ones.
4. No competition.

The govt would have solved a lot of traffic jam problems if they have planned the routes of buses well. The problem with the buses is that if you have to change bus then you have no option but go all the way to the bus-station & then travel back the same route half  way to go to some other destination. They could have built an intersection near HMC, Corniche,Doha Cinema etc. The bus-stops do not have even Roof for courtesy, when they should have had AC booths. Ladies should have partitioned reserved places (not just a couple of seats)so as to encourage ladies to take buses. If they had not planned the Asian games then even the buses would not have existed.

The only way to improve is to tax the fuel & divert it for Public Transportation.
It would need an other company like Karwa as its competitor so as to bring in new ideas & fares.

Also looking at the pace of the construction the roads are only going to get more crowded unless they plan high-speed mass-public-transportation system like a 12-car train which they can easily
build on the centre of the footpath (elevated 20 feet over head exactly where the present high mast road luminare are placed).

Hope something comes around as every day I see a car adding to the queue outside my house. By the way next week I'll be adding my car too to the queue.

Doha is merciless on people without car, but a heaven if you have one.