Public transport in low-income countries (part 3)

Today we conclude our three-part series on road safety with our late segment of the article titled “The Monster Bus. Road Safety and the Caribbean Minibus Culture: Taming a Monster”, written by guest contributor Eric Kipps, Road Safety Constant. We pick up where we left off last week on The Cause of the Problem.

“…..This created a vacuum, which was filled by enterprising owners of small buses and taxis who delivered a comparatively faster and ‘reliable’, but largely illegal service. By 1983, the illegal service all but conquered the Corporate Area transportation. Likewise, ‘Modern’ Trinidad and Tobago is suffocating in the fumes and the noise of cars, trucks, vans and buses.

Perhaps it is a just punishment for scrapping the coastal streamers, trams and trains. The entire railway system was scrapped in 1966, one year after the last train ran to San Fernando, making way for the motor car in its various incarnations, which had been on the scene since 1990. The public transport service was in the most part inefficient and like Jamaica gave rise to modern maxi taxi.

The Robots, Maxi Taxi, Minibus and vans have over the years developed a poor safety record with frequent accidents which most time have ended in fatal consequences. Fierce competition from customers invites, chaotic and collectively damaging driving behaviour.

Poor customer service was also damaging driving behaviour. Poor customer service was also common place with commuters subjected to verbal, physical and psychological abuse at the hands of the drivers and conductors; a feature of the service.

In Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago operators have been known to kick everyone off their vehicles, turn around and head the opposite direction when there is more money to be made going the other way. The drive to maximize personal gain, regardless of how others might be impacted, leads to such unscrupulous behaviour.

Due to hyper-competition, operators are notorious for driving aggressively and recklessly. Many are guilty of cutting off cars to pick up passengers, blocking lanes to load and unload passengers, overloading, operating unsafe vehicles, ignoring red lights and excessive cruising and hawking for customers.

Some operators knowingly and openly disobey traffic rules, though in fairness, flagrant violation of traffic laws is common place in our region, not just among bus operators.

Others are simply unaware of traffic rules because they have no driver training and are illiterate.

Literacy is one of the key issues as many of the operators in particular the ‘Conducts of Touts’ as they are referred to in Trinidad and Tobago cannot read, write or communicate effectively with passengers. It is quite evident that there are many unqualified and incompetent drivers who are not fit to drive taxis and buses.

In many countries there is no programme for identifying and taking them out of the driving seats. No countrywide computer database has been established to authenticate their drivers’ licences.

Additionally, long hard-working hours cause driver fatigue, a significant contributor to accidents.

Safety is also compromised when too many passengers are allowed to board. Overcrowding puts children, the elderly and the frail in harm’s way when vehicles are abruptly stopped. It also invites pickpocketing and bullying. The widespread use of poorly maintained vehicles run on under-inflated bald tires, only increase the risk of accidents. In some of the smaller islands the mixed traffic operations many times result in serious injuries and fatalities.

Taming the Monster

Because of the great demand for public transport, it plays a critical role in sustaining and improving the welfare of citizens by providing to millions of across the region. This however must not overshadow the need for safe and comfortable travel. There have been several studies done on the safety, environmental and social impacts of public informal forms of transport in the developing world. The one common consensus is that if left unregulated it will only get worse.

Developing countries require new approaches to addressing their transportation problems. These countries must make these approaches country-specific. In addition, they must realise that solutions designed for cities of developed countries cannot directly be applied developing countries. However, developing countries can and should learn from the mistakes already made in developed countries (like the United States) where unbalanced transportation system are exacting enormous costs.”
References
Jacobs G. D., and Hutchinson, P. 1973. A study of accident rates in developing countries, Crowthrone, Trans and Road Research Laboratory, 546.
Robert Cervero.nd.Informal Transport in the Developing World.

Visit us at www.searchlight.vc or https://www.facebook.com/Searchlight1.We’ll help you get noticed.