Carolyn Cooper | No surrender to lawless taxi drivers!

Last Thursday, I had an upful conversation with Mr Lemar Fraser, a gardener in my neighbourhood. We were talking about the dread conditions of life in Jamaica and our hope for change in the new year. Lemar passed judgement on the workers of iniquity in our society in this way: “Dem is like fools fighting demself.”

It was Dennis Brown’s Sitting and Watching that inspired his words:

“Sitting here watching fools like themselves when

They should all be thinking of getting to know themselves

While life goes on everyone’s got to stand strong

You can’t surrender, no, no, no!”

Is true. We simply cannot afford to surrender to the destructive forces in Jamaican society. We have to keep on reminding ourselves that the majority of Jamaicans are decent, law-abiding citizens. It’s a relatively small number of criminals who are giving us bad name. And we have to stand up strong against them.

There’s a whole long list of evildoers: thieving politicians, their accomplices and their defenders; murderers and rapists, especially those who attack children; gun and drug traffickers; lottery scammers; greedy telecommunications companies that rip off consumers with substandard (dis)service. And on and on!

LAWLESS TAXI DRIVERS

One of the most lawless groups of Jamaicans is taxi drivers. But before condemning them, we must admit that there is an undisciplined taxi driver in all of us. We either control the instinct to be reckless; or we give in to it. I must confess that sometimes when I approach a traffic light that is turning amber I tell myself that I’m going to “do a taxi man”. I press gas and try to rush through the intersection before the light changes to red.

That’s the negative influence of the culture of lawlessness on the roads. It’s so easy to get sucked into bad driving. As D. Brown advises, we have to get to know ourselves. And we must take responsibility for policing ourselves.

My resolution for 2020 is to do all I can to help solve the problem of lawless taxi drivers. We cannot shrug our shoulders and say that’s just how it is, there’s nothing we can do about it.

We can and we must tackle the problem once and for all. We can’t depend on appealing to taxi drivers to change their antisocial behaviour. Most of them are hustlers who don’t give a damn about anybody else on the road. Their mission is to fly up and down as fast as possible, outdriving the competition to scrape up passengers. We have to establish serious punishments for illegal behaviour.

Some taxi drivers don’t even know the road code. And I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry when I was told about the taxi man who said in all seriousness that a red light was just a suggestion to stop. It didn’t mean that you actually had to stop. Could it be that many taxi drivers really believe this? This would explain their behaviour. How could they arrive at this preposterous conclusion? I suppose, just like how they drive, without any regard for the rules of the road!

ROAD CODE INNA FI WI LANGUAGE

One of the strategies we must use to teach the road code is translating it from English to Jamaican. We must reach lawless drivers in a language they understand intimately. And since we know that many drivers are not literate and have bandooloo licences, we should also do a video version that illustrates the rules. This could be widely distributed on social media.

The Jamaican Language Unit at The University of the West Indies, Mona, could coordinate the project. The ministries of Transport and Mining, Health & Wellness, and National Security should all provide essential funding for this far-reaching enterprise. Road safety reduces the health costs of the nation and increases security and well-being.

Passengers also have an important role to play in curbing the lawlessness of taxi drivers. They should not jump in and out of taxis anywhere they feel like. They should use designated taxi stops. Four passengers should not allow themselves to be squashed in the back of a car that’s designed for three. Passengers should not travel in the trunk of a taxi, jeopardising their lives.

If all of us, both passengers and motorists, decided to stand strong against lawless taxi drivers, we could change their behaviour. We could make videos of bad driving and post them on social media.

I do know the popular threat, “Informer fi dead”. But information is power. And it could definitely save your life on the road. If passengers started to boycott taxi drivers who constantly break the rules, we could restore order.

But many passengers are themselves quite lawless; it’s often a lose-lose situation.

Of course, it’s not only taxi drivers who disobey the rules. We are all guilty at times. But taxi drivers are notorious. We have to protect ourselves from them. We can’t just sit and watch the fools and follow their bad example. We have to stand up for old-fashioned civility – on and off the road.

- Carolyn Cooper, PhD, is a specialist on culture and development. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and karokupa@gmail.com