Plan that would charge foreigners more money to take a cab proves unpopular with foreigners.

Unsurprisingly, the plan to provide special "foreigner-only" taxis in Seoul has met with heavy resistance from foreigners. According to the plan laid out earlier in the week, Seoul would designated some 1,000 cabs as foreigner-only, cabs that would be able to provide service in English and other foreign languages, and which would offer fixed rates for popular routes during certain times of the day. Foreigners would pay 20% more for these services. As I pointed out in my initial objection, taxi drivers don't make use of the free translation hotline already installed in cabs, a hotline that would nominally make every cab foreigner-friendly. It's a better idea to know the name of where you're going, and to pronounce it properly, and to avoid businesses that thrive on providing the most basic services to foreigners at a high mark-up. Tourist hotels and tour companies, I'm looking in your direction.

A Fillet of Seoul brought up an interesting angle:

Why not label them as "tourist taxis" and encourage them to hang out in Itaewon, and around hotels and airports? Let them gouge tourists; that is a time-honoured practise and one that only the truly inexperienced traveller would be surprised or outraged at. Leave the rest of us alone to fend for ourselves. And for those that live here: if you cannot communicate with a taxi driver, you deserve whatever grief you get.

The thing is, if you do that foreigners won't be able to find a "regular" cab around Itaewon or Hongdae or around any tourist attraction. And with this "foreigner-only" mark-up plan, it only encourages all cab drivers, whether they're on that beat or not, to try to charge foreigner-only prices. It's hassle enough to deal with that at the airport, let's not bring it elsewhere.

The article cites Scott Burgeson, in a comment he left on the original piece:

Some foreigners even seriously criticized the ``foreigner-only taxis,'' claiming they could cause an atmosphere of segregation between Koreans and foreigners.

``Most expatriates object to the policy because it increases an atmosphere of separation, when we simply want to be treated as equals here, and have the same access to public services as everyone else,'' an Internet user with the ID Jsburgeson said on The Korea Times Web site.

I agree with that. I've never had a bad experience with taxi drivers in Korea, and generally find them pretty agreeable. I guess I'm an exception, though. It's laughable for me to encourage taxi drivers to be nicer, considering how taxi drivers treated pretty much everyone back home, but I'll be so bold as to say taxi drivers shouldn't price-gouge tourists. But on the flip-side, how about showing some respect and patience if you're a foreign passenger. Learn how to say where you want to go, or have a back-up plan such as a business card or phone number in case you're not understood. Don't get pissy when the driver misunderstands your Denzel-like Korean babble, and don't get bent out of shape if there's a miscommunication between you and the driver. That's bound to happen if you don't speak the language. That's not to say there aren't problems, especially prevalent among certain demographics of foreigners, but I don't have the energy to backpeddle anymore tonight.