Drivah! (Buju Banton voice)

For quite some time I've sought a public medium to air my grievances related to public transportation, or rather the attitudes of those who offer this disservice. 

If you’ve ever had to drive on Jamaican roads there is a plethora of complaints that you could easily make; from the poor signage in some places to the rough spots/pot holes/ craters that force drivers to make an obstacle course of some road ways.  By far however, my most testing reality is taxi drivers (well bus drivers too but since they are fewer in number they don’t manage to tick me off as much).  Maybe I should be grateful since much time is spent calling on the Lord when I have to negotiate their sudden stops to pick up/ let off passengers who encourage their indiscipline by requesting stops at some of the most inappropriate places. 

Some blame slavery; others blame politicians for the aggressive, hustla (hustler) mentality that seems to drive these drivers.  If you are approaching a bus stop and a taxi/ bus driver has stopped there, be mentally prepared for him to pull out in front of you, regardless of how close you already are to him.  If you have stopped at a red light and there is a filter lane at that junction, expect that he will come down in that filter lane and then try to bully you into allowing him to come over into your lane in front of you.

Things get more testy/dangerous if several of them are en route to a major bus stop.  Perhaps some have aspirations of competing in NASCAR for many have surely embraced the style of bobbing and weaving at high speeds through the gaps in the traffic – minus of course the protective gear and the crash quality of the vehicle, and with 5x (or more) the number of passengers. 

“The Word” penned a hilarious account of their experience on public transportation back in the 1980s (youtube/pon a mini bus).  Though there has been change in terms of the quality of some vehicles and the reality of alternatives, much of what those women talked about in their video is hardly different; the speed, the noise, the crowded conditions (of some routes during peak hours) has led me to further endorse the idea that the more things change, the more they remain the same.