QUOTE:‘These roads are now in the grip of a rude mini bus culture that has brought chaos to the city.’

THE narrow roads in our City of Georgetown were constructed in the bygone era of Saturday evening window shopping, Sunday afternoon seawall walks and predictable, yellow, motor transport buses.

These roads are now in the grip of a rude mini bus culture that has brought chaos to the city.

There is no doubt that since our roads were constructed on dams designed before the era of motor transport, the city has expanded, its population has enlarged, the volume of business conducted has grown and the number of vehicles using the roads has increased, all exponentially.

But, miraculously, getting to work and school are still tolerable and time efficient, though expensive, exercises. However, although the mini bus has been largely responsible for sustaining the transport system after the collapse of the state owned service in the 1980s, the proliferation of such vehicles and the intense competition for passengers has spawned what is now popularly referred to as ‘the mini bus culture.’

This culture is defined by aggressive behavior, rudeness, discourtesy, noise, unruly driving, obstructing the free flow of traffic, the growing, haphazardly placed mini bus parks in downtown Georgetown, passengers in large numbers on the roadway, rubbish on the streets around mini bus parks and other anti social activities and behavior.

This culture has, sadly, been grudgingly tolerated as part of our daily routine of going to and from work and school or of inhabiting the city as resident or visitor.

This situation cannot be allowed to continue if Georgetown is ever to return to its former glory as a garden city and if Guyana is ever to develop as a tourist attraction. Georgetown is still described as “the garden city of the Caribbean.” (Wikipedia).

Even if it still deserves that distinction much restoration is required to return Georgetown to its pristine garden beauty. The first step is to remove mini bus parks from the centre of the city, regulate the roads on which they can travel and establish bus stops.

Currently, there appears to be no certainty as to where the authority lies in relation to establishing mini bus or taxi parks and to take and implement decisions in relation to the other matters outlined above.

The Commissioner of Police, under the Motor Vehicles and Road Traffic Act, appears to be the only person with authority to designate parks. The City Council, under the Municipal and District Councils Act, also appears to have some jurisdiction over the regulation of traffic. One would have expected to see, therefore, collaborative efforts between these two agencies in resolving the congestion in the city arising out of the existence of mini bus parks over an entire section and attempts to take in more and more of the city for this purpose. Something needs to be done.

A suggestion which has been made to me, and which I adopt, is the establishment of a statutory Transportation Authority with power and jurisdiction over those aspects of public transport to enable it to establish and construct facilities for mini bus parks (outside or at the edges of the city), establish and construct bus stops, designate roads on the various routes to be used by mini buses, regulate fares, collaborate with the City Council and Police Force in matters which those agencies have responsibilities and other appropriate business.

In countries like Guyana, funding is always a challenge. Road licenses for motor vehicles are ridiculously low. A modest increase, together with charges by the Authority to gas stations, shop owners and others who would be desirous of capturing the business of the mini buses and waiting passengers for the use of its facilities, and other creative initiatives, will ensure funding for the Authority.