The yellow threat to Guyana’s tourism prospects

Oct 08, 2013 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
Frankly, I am fed up with the years of experience in commuting by taxi, as a result of (physical) circumstances beyond my control.
As someone who, over time, has travelled frequently throughout the Caribbean territories, and beyond, it becomes increasingly difficult to reconcile to the standard which the yellow taxi services provide in this city, with but disproportionately few exceptions.
But before reciting the range of personal experiences, it may be worth inviting attention to the quality of the supervision and monitoring system (if at all one exists) provided by the relevant operational unit of the Guyana Police Force.
Part of the latter’s ineffectualness is clearly due to the lack of an upgrading in Traffic Management techniques which should be applicable to the current situation – resulting of course from the subject Ministry’s abstinence in allowing members of the Traffic Department appropriate exposures – to the practices and procedures more professionally and effectively conducted in the sister territories of the Caricom alone, much more in a sophisticated traffic environment as obtains in neighbouring Brazil. The cost of some of these exposures could be easily negotiable, and in some instances even free to the local Administration.
It all begins however, with the driver’s licencing system, the vulnerability of which, to quote one example, permits persons over seventy years of age and (including any related health checks) to acquire, for the first time, certification to propel public transportation with the desirable degree of safety.
Behaviours of a range of drivers from various taxi services clearly indicate that formal training by the Traffic Department and certification thereof are not a prerequisite for obtaining an authentic driver’s licence. Nor is there indication of any level of education of these drivers about the relevant traffic laws and regulations.
As a consequence of the abovementioned systemic deficits, among others, the following are some of the experiences to which tourists, or other potential passengers, are likely to be exposed:
i) Offer of a front seat alongside the driver (who resents any refusal)
ii) Full blast of recorded music of the transporter’s personal taste
iii) Uncertainty, if not ignorance, of the geography of the city and environs
iv) Clear determination to avoid all intervening traffic lights, in the usual mis-evaluation that the destination will be reached more quickly
v) The consequence is a series of detours through roads the condition of many of which would disenchant any local, much more the visitor
vi) The insistence on one-handed control (?) of the vehicle, while the other is outstretched across the back of the left front seat, leaving the passenger behind it in an awkwardly breathtaking (if not breathless) situation, particularly in an enclosed air conditioned vehicle
vii) Most times conversation would require the visitor to have translation of the non-structured language that is too often used, acquainted as the former may be with normal creolese speech.
Recognising the indifference of the relevant stakeholders to this scenario, it would appear that no choice is left to but bear your (bumpy) chafe.

P.S.
Since writing the above, more recent experience has convinced me that as a passenger I have gone to the dogs. I have just had to endure a private cell phone conversation in which the driver discussed at length with the listening party, the purchase of dog food.
E.B. John

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