Public transport key to fuel hikes
EDITORIAL | Thursday August 7, 2008 00:00
We must critically evaluate whether by everyone using their private vehicles, we are not accelerating the rate at which petrol and diesel prices are rocketing by heightening consumption.
Government should come up with a strategy that would promote the use of public transport. But the industry has to be efficient if it is to be viable enough to win public appeal and support. Currently, the state of our public transport vehicles leaves much to be desired. One does not need to go far to see some of the dilapidated and smoking buses and combis that are paraded on roads as public transport. In some cases, the buses are even unreliable, as they do not keep their set timetables. And, of course, that is not to forget about the unhygienic conditions in most of the public transport vehicles. One cannot even dream of putting on their best clothes and boarding a combi to work due to the overcrowding and unsanitary conditions that characterise our public transport vehicles.
In some cases, the language that taxi drivers and conductors use when dealing with clients is deplorable to say the least. There is need to re-examine how such business could better be conducted with dignity and respect particularly when one takes into account the fact that elderly people, who do not own cars, use public transport vehicles. Even young clients/ customers need to be treated with dignity because Botswana places a high premium on botho as one of the values that underpin the country's national Vision 2016.
However, it has to be noted that despite the problems enumerated above, there are some public transport operators who have stood the test of time and ensured that they conduct business in a matter that is beyond reproach. They have maintained very high standards comparable to anywhere in the world. That is the way it should be.
The point that the operators in this industry fail to appreciate is that an efficient and profitable public transport system would be beneficial to everyone because once the industry is efficient, there would be no need for most people to use their private vehicles to go to work. It is happening in other countries, particularly in Europe, the United States and Canada, where they have reliable and efficient public transport systems.
It is high time that government seriously promoted public transport as an alternative to help mitigate the effects of the rising fuel prices that available resources cannot keep pace with.
Today's Thought
Most people have no alternative, particularly those who live in rural areas. A lot of motorists tell us that if there was a decent and affordable public transport system they would use that ... but we are still a long way from having an alternative.
- Paul Hodgson