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Nurturing a lawless road culture

Dec 20, 2019 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,

It is beyond time that the government brings all public minibus and taxi operators within a strict regulatory and legal framework for standards, public safety and security and price control of customer fares.
The horrific accident at Mahaicony on December 18, 2019 and recent accidents present indications of speeding by minibus drivers that endangered the lives of their passengers. In many cases lives were lost. Daily, I observe minibus and taxi drivers speeding and indulging in some of the most dangerous and unlawful acts on the roadways.
In many countries the traveling public enjoys the pleasure of using public transportation that is convenient, economical, clean, orderly and safe.
In Guyana, it is a daily lawless culture by must operators with annoying touts, disorderly queue systems of vehicles, and disrespectful drivers and conductors that are poorly dressed, unhygienic (smelling foul), at times verbally and physically abusive, lack courtesy, at times not licensed to drive and driving a vehicle without the necessary documentation, drinking alcohol, and ill treating the elderly and school children, as just a few to mention.
Then there is the retrofitting of minibuses and taxis with boomboxes that play loud and vulgar music to the pleasure of the drivers and conductors, and without any consideration of passengers’ taste, health and feelings.
Part of the lawlessness is how taxi and minibus drivers and conductors offload passengers in traffic and at any location on the roadways without consideration for the safety of passengers and other motorists and pedestrians that would be affected. There is no respect on the use of bus stops and established routes. Minibus drivers do as they please, with limited sanction.
As a driver, at times I have experienced minibus and taxi drivers trying to bully me in a corner so they can speed past me. The sad part is that passengers often sit silently while the lawlessness occurs.
The lawlessness is beyond unbearable and the time for talk has passed. It is time to get totally strict with regulations and a public transportation body to craft policies, monitor and police a respectable and people-friendly public transportation system, especially based on services by private operators.
I daresay it is also time for government to get back into the business of public transportation to end the lawless monopoly by private operators. Further, it is time to remove the central bus parks from the Stabroek Market area. It is time for a modern bus terminus and a well thought-out system.
What we have today is a system dictated mostly by lawless operators who have played a part in nurturing a lawless road culture and I dare say a lawless communication and disdainful culture in Guyana.
I wish to use this opportunity to express my sincerest sympathies to the families that lost loved ones to road accidents.
Regards,
Jermaine Grant

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