Mark Da Cunha
Visit the authors web site here…
In an editorial “Safe Public Transport is a Basic Right” (Tribune, September 19, 2011) the author Tankea Thompson complains about the inadequacies of the public transport in the Bahamas, in particular the jitney driver’s “wanton disregard for the law.” She writes: “We need a complete overhaul of the sector, taken over by government with public officers in place to ensure that the men and women chosen to drive their fleet do so in a professional and rational manner.”
Sadly her solution is worse than the disease.
These same problems are just as possible (and more likely) under a state run system -- just look at the violence that has erupted over the years in those intellectual canning factories of mind-rot known as public schools. Or, just look at those poor drivers in the super market parking lots sporting red (government) license plates.
The majority of taxi and bus drivers are honest and reputable people; those that break the law are a minority. The author’s editorial sweeps both together with far too broad a brush.
Bad driving is not limited to bus drivers. Most accidents are caused by non bus drivers. Should they be banned from driving privately as well?
Private bus owners do not own the roads -- the government does. The lack of proper bus stops and depots is a result of the government monopoly on roads. By having the state extend that monopoly into busing, the Bahamas government will do for busing what it has done for electricity, schools and tourism. It will make things worse. Having the state take over the bus traffic system will only make the bad drivers state employees with no accountability to their customers (this is the case of our state owned and operated schools), and will punish those honest bus drivers who have been following the law by putting them out of business. It is to spit in the faces of good drivers for the decades of good service they have provided.
Laws are in place to punish those who break the law. That the government fails to do so merely encourages such actions. The problem with the bus system -- and driving in general -- is that the government does not punish the bad drivers for bad driving, thus encouraging reckless driving as the bad driving drives out the good.
This is the heart of the real problem: the Bahamas government’s inability to deal with crime by its failure to carry out justice. It is a problem that is endemic not just in transportation, but throughout all sectors of our society. In sum: no takeover of the industry is necessary, merely proper enforcement of the laws already in place.
