MINI-VAN taxis that seat seven or eight people will become a common sight in Adelaide under a plan to increase productivity.

Also, a new push is being considered to encourage cab sharing - separate passengers heading in a similar direction using the one taxi - especially at times of peak demand.

Better use of taxis will make passengers and taxi operators all winners, instead of flooding the industry with more taxis, says Taxi Council SA.

The council's vice-president, Wally Sievers, was responding yesterday to claims Adelaide had far fewer taxis per head of population than other state capitals.

Official figures show Adelaide has one taxi for every 1151 people. Only Canberra at 1260:1 has a greater ratio. Hobart has one cab per 522 people, Sydney 842, Darwin 927, Perth 934, Melbourne 1005 and Brisbane 1033.

"Adelaide is a different city," Mr Sievers said.

"The number of taxis we have is worked out on waiting times, feedback from customers and quarterly reports on statistics from the taxi companies."

He said the average waiting time for a cab in Adelaide was around 10 minutes "which we think is acceptable".

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,22107528-2682,00.html