#BTEditorial – Move from idea to plan, on independent school bus system

The Government’s proposal to dedicate a fleet of Transport Board buses to transport school children is a welcome and timely initiative that could attract public support.

We believe that such a service should be independent of the public bus company, the Transport Board, which daily struggles to ferry adult passengers – a slender thread that sustains our productivity and competitiveness given the strong dependence of working men and women on the buses in ultramarine and gold. It need not be wholly state-owned: there is a significant non-profit sector that is waiting to be taken seriously as a viable alternative to the failure of market solutions for social problems.

We have long argued that the market cannot support a growing nation’s transit needs, not without additional risk to life and limb by a private transit industry that has proved itself incapable of wrestling its greediest members to the ground. No advanced Western economy runs on an entirely or even mostly private and commercial transit system. None.

Clearly, the politicians can no longer ignore our daily battle with minibuses that either clog our highways with sloth as they pick fares or shun laybys to block competitors. This is when they are not travelling at breakneck speeds, making gravity-defying manoeuvres or contributing to a subculture that lures our school children into wanton, reckless and wholly inappropriate behaviours.

A separate school bus service would ensure that school children have a safe, reliable and comfortable mode of transport to and from school. Purpose-built school buses would be designed to meet the specific needs of students, such as GPS systems, cameras and monitors. They would be driven by trained and vetted drivers who follow strict safety protocols and codes of conduct. School buses would reduce the exposure of students to the risks and dangers of travelling on PSVs such as overcrowding, reckless driving, accidents, violence, harassment and negative influences.

But back to the Transport Board. After decades of mismanagement, we must admit that our public bus company, which was created in 1955 to take over from the market-driven transit system, has only just begun to turn a proverbial corner with its newly-acquired fleet of electric buses.

The EV buses have started cutting through a swathe of issues – from high parts and maintenance costs and driver abuse to fuel spending. Our people travel in a bus service that is only just beginning to accord a little more of the dignity that they who drive our whole economy deserve. Air conditioning. Wi-Fi access. Charging ports. Comfort. Safety. Timeliness and reliability may indeed follow.

Technology has made our national bus service more accountable to its owners, the people of Barbados, than any capped inspector of old. Now we want to spend such hard-earned assets on ferrying children who are not sufficiently seized with respect for public property and our commonwealth. In sum, a separate school bus service would improve the efficiency and effectiveness of our public transit system.

By removing a large number of students from public buses, the Transport Board would be able to focus on serving adult passengers better and more frequently. We cannot but hope for a reduction in congestion, delays and frustration that plague daily commuting in Barbados. Surely a separate school bus service would also ease the traffic on the roads, especially during peak hours, by reducing the number of cars to drop off and pick up children. One needs only to observe the near Nirvana of our highways and byways during school holidays to agree.

Imagine, then, the knock-on, positive effects on the education and well-being of our students. School buses would ensure that students arrive at school on time and ready to learn. Our youngsters would still be able to socialise, make friends and develop life skills such as responsibility, time management, independence – and respect for property – aboard hardy and hardened school buses.

School buses would also support the introduction of staggered hours and extended hours after school, which would not only enhance the quality and diversity of education but contribute meaningfully to traffic management.

Just as our locally built minibuses have been exported to other Eastern Caribbean nations for use as school buses, then surely a revitalised bus assembly industry could be pressed into making these vehicles with electric drivetrains for ourselves, not merely provide an importation contract for the ubiquitous, American-styled, yellow school buses. We hope to heaven not.

We believe that a separate school bus service is a worthwhile investment that would benefit not only students but also parents, teachers, Transport Board, PSVs and the travelling public. Government should move from thinking aloud to expediting this idea with a cogent plan.

“For want of a shoe, the horse was lost.” So much of our national peace, good order and economic productivity hang on bringing order to a disorderly transit system. A national school bus service could be an important shoe. ]]>