Youth feel unsafe on public transport | Drum
Half of young South Africans who use public transport feel it is unsafe to do so, according to a survey released on Monday.
That is perhaps nothing new but still it raises fundamental concerns about life and society in Africa.
Life is mobility and mobility is life. There are very few things in life that can be achieved without been able to move from A to B. Hence, an efficient transport system is vital to the enjoyment of life, its very practicability and essence. Since the very first rule of life is self-preservation, being able to travel safely is of serious concern to every transport user because transport is a means to fulfilling existential objectives. Without a doubt, the grim result of the survey of South African travellers is certainly what you will find in a similar poll in Abakaliki, Bamako, Ouagadogou or Lusaka. From the point when you say Hey! to the taxi driver, it is a state of anxiety until you get off.
Why is this so?
Primarily, it is because the informal sector dominates the provision of public transport. With the best of regulatory efforts, little is achievable in terms of effective policing of operators. The progeny or professionalism or even effective identification of the drivers is mostly weakly defined while the quality of vehicles is mainly poor. These twin issues - poor drivers and poor vehicles together constitute a crucial factor in the safety framework around African transport.
The core issues therefore may be categorised into the following groups under the PEST umbrella - Political, Economic, Social and Technology:
1. People - comprising social, environmental and competence issues
2. Vehicles - Economic, technological and environmental issues
3. Infrastructure - Economic and political economy, security and safety oversight
4. Regulation - Legal and institutional issues especially oversight and enforcement
Officials of African countries will claim they are trying to do what they can to address the issue of safety in transportation. However the problem that has been found in most countries is that policy is inconsistent over time to become entrenched.
The Social Milieu - Area Boys, Area Bus!
Many of the political operators lack clear commitment to sanitising the situation. It is common for political actors to use transport operators for political objectives. Across the continent, powerful Transport owners' and Transport workers' unions work hand-in-glove with politicians and regulators to subvert the formal regulatory framework. In some countries, such as South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, these unions exert enormous political clout such that they subvert well-intentioned policy initiatives. Alongside these political alliances is an actively-embedded culture of violence. It is such the case therefore that the feeling of helplessness and vulnerability felt by commuters emanated directly from the often aggressive and militant behaviour of the bus drivers and their assistants. In Nigeria, the 'assistants' are called Area Boys. They constitute a nuisnace in the local bus parks.
The culture of violence drives away effective supervision and so the private operators are a law unto themselves. Criminals hide under the cloak of this establishment to perpetrate their illicit trades in rape, abductions and assault. Sometimes, the operators are the criminals or they are the victims.
Looking further into this matter, it is found that poor regulation is not just an issue of failure of state supervision. There is actually poor self-regulation on the part of the operators. It seems that the generally violent and unsavoury setting of motor parks and bus stations feeds a culture of superstition which also feeds a belief in the power of magic charms to protect from the dangers perceived to exist in the transport trade. The belief in charms encourages reckless driving and unreasonable risk-taking. This mindset also relates to the febrile rivalry that exists among the operators and sits amidst a culture of unregulated drug and alcohol misuse while operating vehicles.
Vehicles or Hearses
One of the most frightening spectacles of intercity public transport in Africa is the grisly aftermath of a minibus crash. There are hardly any survivors, or any without serious injury. The design of these minibuses alone is enough to make you feel unsafe. Seating four abreast in a row that is barely 12 feet wide, in a four row configuration, passengers know that in the event of a crash, there is very little chance of escape, let alone survival. The use of minibuses is popular in Africa because it fits into the 'owner-operator' model and is quicker to fill up for journeys. But when viewed in conjunction with the other factors above, it is no surprise that people feel unsafe. Recently, the Lagos state government in Nigeria introduced annual testing and certification of vehicles. It is a step in the right direction but even the most ardent supporter will agree that many of the commercial vehicles in parts of Lagos could not have passed the annual test!
Overseers that see no evil!
There is a confluence where the agents of poor safety of Africa's transport systems merge and there you find official connivance, official incompetence and official disregard. In each case, the state actors play a key role in making the system unsafe. These features range from high and low level political connivance in the lax regulation of their political allies to failure to train, equip and empower officials. The result is a culture of impunity that allows operators to run substandard services threatening the safety of passengers. Even when the political framework is supported at the top level, frontline enforcement is compromised by distortion of the vision, incompetence and obstruction.
Technology
The most effective way of encouraging safe behaviour by drivers and operators is monitoring and enforcement. Most African countries have little data on their citizens that can trace them to their homes and their employment. This lack of data is not just a matter of capture and storage. It goes deeply to the issue of identifying people and locating their skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours within their role as driver or operator. What is their relationship with any association? Effective monitoring that can act as a deterrence to reckless behaviour can only occur when the individual concerned is easy to identify, trace and managed within the framework. The use of CCTV is recommended in this respect. Hand-held devices and vehicle-borne equipment will go a long way in regulating the excesses of these operators.
Legal and Institutional framework
Many of the countries with road safety problems have sound legal frameworks and institutions to deliver them. The fulsome failing is diligent implementation which happens for several reasons, some of which have been suggested above. One point of note is that countries need to be careful to adopt one-hat-fits-all packages that usually come from donor and institutions. Bespoke, locally-derived solutions, though more tedious to obtain, may lead to more enduring arrangements that achieve better outcomes in the long-term.
It is my hope that actors in the transportation and ancillary sectors will work together to make sure that Oyongo gets from A to J in one piece with peace of mind instead of from Hey! To Grave in anxiety and trepidation.
Half of young South Africans who use public transport feel it is unsafe to do so, according to a survey released on Monday.
That is perhaps nothing new but still it raises fundamental concerns about life and society in Africa.
Life is mobility and mobility is life. There are very few things in life that can be achieved without been able to move from A to B. Hence, an efficient transport system is vital to the enjoyment of life, its very practicability and essence. Since the very first rule of life is self-preservation, being able to travel safely is of serious concern to every transport user because transport is a means to fulfilling existential objectives. Without a doubt, the grim result of the survey of South African travellers is certainly what you will find in a similar poll in Abakaliki, Bamako, Ouagadogou or Lusaka. From the point when you say Hey! to the taxi driver, it is a state of anxiety until you get off.
Why is this so?
Primarily, it is because the informal sector dominates the provision of public transport. With the best of regulatory efforts, little is achievable in terms of effective policing of operators. The progeny or professionalism or even effective identification of the drivers is mostly weakly defined while the quality of vehicles is mainly poor. These twin issues - poor drivers and poor vehicles together constitute a crucial factor in the safety framework around African transport.
The core issues therefore may be categorised into the following groups under the PEST umbrella - Political, Economic, Social and Technology:
1. People - comprising social, environmental and competence issues
2. Vehicles - Economic, technological and environmental issues
3. Infrastructure - Economic and political economy, security and safety oversight
4. Regulation - Legal and institutional issues especially oversight and enforcement
Officials of African countries will claim they are trying to do what they can to address the issue of safety in transportation. However the problem that has been found in most countries is that policy is inconsistent over time to become entrenched.
The Social Milieu - Area Boys, Area Bus!
Many of the political operators lack clear commitment to sanitising the situation. It is common for political actors to use transport operators for political objectives. Across the continent, powerful Transport owners' and Transport workers' unions work hand-in-glove with politicians and regulators to subvert the formal regulatory framework. In some countries, such as South Africa, Kenya and Nigeria, these unions exert enormous political clout such that they subvert well-intentioned policy initiatives. Alongside these political alliances is an actively-embedded culture of violence. It is such the case therefore that the feeling of helplessness and vulnerability felt by commuters emanated directly from the often aggressive and militant behaviour of the bus drivers and their assistants. In Nigeria, the 'assistants' are called Area Boys. They constitute a nuisnace in the local bus parks.
The culture of violence drives away effective supervision and so the private operators are a law unto themselves. Criminals hide under the cloak of this establishment to perpetrate their illicit trades in rape, abductions and assault. Sometimes, the operators are the criminals or they are the victims.
Looking further into this matter, it is found that poor regulation is not just an issue of failure of state supervision. There is actually poor self-regulation on the part of the operators. It seems that the generally violent and unsavoury setting of motor parks and bus stations feeds a culture of superstition which also feeds a belief in the power of magic charms to protect from the dangers perceived to exist in the transport trade. The belief in charms encourages reckless driving and unreasonable risk-taking. This mindset also relates to the febrile rivalry that exists among the operators and sits amidst a culture of unregulated drug and alcohol misuse while operating vehicles.
Vehicles or Hearses
One of the most frightening spectacles of intercity public transport in Africa is the grisly aftermath of a minibus crash. There are hardly any survivors, or any without serious injury. The design of these minibuses alone is enough to make you feel unsafe. Seating four abreast in a row that is barely 12 feet wide, in a four row configuration, passengers know that in the event of a crash, there is very little chance of escape, let alone survival. The use of minibuses is popular in Africa because it fits into the 'owner-operator' model and is quicker to fill up for journeys. But when viewed in conjunction with the other factors above, it is no surprise that people feel unsafe. Recently, the Lagos state government in Nigeria introduced annual testing and certification of vehicles. It is a step in the right direction but even the most ardent supporter will agree that many of the commercial vehicles in parts of Lagos could not have passed the annual test!
Overseers that see no evil!
There is a confluence where the agents of poor safety of Africa's transport systems merge and there you find official connivance, official incompetence and official disregard. In each case, the state actors play a key role in making the system unsafe. These features range from high and low level political connivance in the lax regulation of their political allies to failure to train, equip and empower officials. The result is a culture of impunity that allows operators to run substandard services threatening the safety of passengers. Even when the political framework is supported at the top level, frontline enforcement is compromised by distortion of the vision, incompetence and obstruction.
Technology
The most effective way of encouraging safe behaviour by drivers and operators is monitoring and enforcement. Most African countries have little data on their citizens that can trace them to their homes and their employment. This lack of data is not just a matter of capture and storage. It goes deeply to the issue of identifying people and locating their skills, knowledge, experience and behaviours within their role as driver or operator. What is their relationship with any association? Effective monitoring that can act as a deterrence to reckless behaviour can only occur when the individual concerned is easy to identify, trace and managed within the framework. The use of CCTV is recommended in this respect. Hand-held devices and vehicle-borne equipment will go a long way in regulating the excesses of these operators.
Legal and Institutional framework
Many of the countries with road safety problems have sound legal frameworks and institutions to deliver them. The fulsome failing is diligent implementation which happens for several reasons, some of which have been suggested above. One point of note is that countries need to be careful to adopt one-hat-fits-all packages that usually come from donor and institutions. Bespoke, locally-derived solutions, though more tedious to obtain, may lead to more enduring arrangements that achieve better outcomes in the long-term.
It is my hope that actors in the transportation and ancillary sectors will work together to make sure that Oyongo gets from A to J in one piece with peace of mind instead of from Hey! To Grave in anxiety and trepidation.
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