Bolivian Bus System

Japan's stringent road regulations, strong environmental laws and quick depreciation of cars is closely related to the public transport in Bolivia.

If you would like to make a picture of the Bolivian public transport all you need to do is imagine those Japanese imports that could not enter New Zealand because they were unable to meet the low standards set by the government; those cars end up in Bolivia, where the importing regulation standards are even lower. Anyway; environmental issues

concerning cars are on the bottom of the government's agenda. My greatest concern is not how cars got into the country but what goes inside the Bolivian roads.

We all know that in a privatised market business owners' main goal is to maximise profits and minimise costs; but in a sensitive area such as public transport, citizens must rely on their government to create laws that will protect their safety. But most of the time laws are designed to fix the surface of the problem generating a quick fix that will satisfy the immediate needs of the people, and governments use this as a propagandist method to show the "positive" results of their actions. But at the end of the day the main problem remains a ticking bomb, that governments pray it doesn't explode during their term.

Santa Cruz, Bolivia has a population of 1.3 million and an estimate of 7000 buses plus 13000 thousand trufis* and taxis (against 4069 buses and 2766 taxis in Auckland). In Santa Cruz bus drivers do not get a salary, they earn on commission, so for each passenger they take the more money they earn. There are 120 different bus lines circulating the city and it is a highly competitive market, in other words the city is saturated with buses.

Because of the over saturation of buses there is no need for timetables, people is bound to catch a bus within 10 minutes any time of the day. On the other hand; bus drivers live by the clock. Their salary depends strictly on how many passengers they take; so the first obvious thing to do is to stop at dense areas of the city and wait until your bus is filled. To counteract this problem bus unions have developed a timing system in which bus drivers have a set time to finish their round trips, and for every minute delayed they must pay a fine. Causing bus drivers to drive incredibly slow at dense areas of the city and to speed at amazingly dangerous speeds at the end of each round.

There is also no need for bus stops, since it is on bus drivers' best interest to stop for every body regardless of where passengers stand, but this is also a dangerous activity, since you can see people getting on and off buses in the middle of the road, at intersections, traffic lights... the list goes on.

Attempts by the Santa Cruz government to solve the public transport issues date for as long as I care to remember, and their regulations are passed in a very slow pace. For instance, between 10 to 12 years ago bus drivers did not need to close the door of their buses, so they could take as many passengers as possible. It was so common to see a bus so full that some of the passengers literally hanged outside the moving buses, this caused many deaths. And finally the government was pressured to force bus drivers to close their doors.

Five years ago I saw the first bus stop in Santa Cruz, and the government is trying to enforce them, but There is no real motivation for bus drivers to use them. Since they first appeared they have now become street shops among other things.

Bus drivers provide a public service, they have an important and responsible job and if we were to examine the conditions in which these people work, we will see that they are a small step above slaves, and that they are stigmatised in society as the ones responsible for the deaths of many people yearly. But if a bus driver wants to make a decent living (for Bolivian standards) he needs to work very long hours almost every day of the week; and because of the financial insecurity of his job, he constantly puts his life and the lives of his passengers at risk.

So in order to solve the problem, we need to look at the causes not the consequences of the problem. We have had many years to think about it and every one deep inside knows that by making bus drivers salaried men will facilitate the enforcement of laws and regulations. So our main question is, how can we maximise the benefits to bus drivers and bus owners by giving monthly salaries to drivers? I also ask my self; would there be less buses on the road? Is this a bad or a good thing? Will many people loose their jobs? Will profit for bus drivers and owners go down?

*Trufis: have no set routes and carry up to four passengers to different locations, they stand as something between taxis and buses.

I would like to thank Ronaldo Vaca Pereira for allowing me to use his picture.

Radio Zumbi, a radio do povo brasileiro na Nova Zelandia. Saturdays 8:40 PM 104.6 Planet FM