Kristen Gyles | Professional clowns and stamp collectors

How many professional clowns do we have working as taxi drivers? I have to ask, in light of all the gimmicks put on display earlier this week, supposedly as part of a nationwide strike done in protest of the Government’s refusal to grant a traffic ticket amnesty.

Taxi drivers and other public passenger vehicle operators called for an amnesty, supposedly because they need more time to pay all their traffic tickets. Although such a call is brazen, the need for more time is not exactly strange, since several taxi operators are purported to have amassed over 100 tickets since the last traffic ticket amnesty. According to a member of One Voice Transport Association, given the inability of many taxi operators to pay all their tickets at once, the Government should help them out by providing a payment plan.

Why on earth should anyone care about the inconvenience of a driver having to pay 100 tickets all at once? Of all the issues I could lend my pity to, that one is so far down the list that it is falling off the page. The more pertinent question is, how does one individual manage to get so many tickets in the first instance?

The most alarming part of this clown saga is the claim that it is actually not the taxi operators who should be blamed for amassing hundreds of tickets, but rather, the broken system which allowed such gross oversight. The two things can be true. The system may be broken, but so is the sense of responsibility of any driver who has been ticketed 100 times.

HOBBY

Some persons collect stamps as a hobby, but it seems other persons prefer collecting tickets. In 2019, a bus operator was held with over 1,000 unpaid traffic tickets. This was just two years after the amnesty granted in 2017. If it takes a driver two measly years to get 1,000 tickets, he is probably picking up more tickets than passengers and shouldn’t be driving. The crux of the matter is that many taxi drivers now protesting the oh-so-callous position of the Government, never intended to pay their tickets in the first instance.

It seems, instead, that many drivers simply conclude that the system is set against them and decide they won’t be wasting time paying for tickets that the police could have avoided giving them. And yes, you read that right. One protester interviewed by a number of media houses complained that too often, police give taxi drivers tickets they can avoid giving them.

What evidence is there to show that there has been a shift in the behaviour of drivers who benefited from the last ticket amnesty? That data would be useful here. How are we assured that the same beneficiaries of the amnesty in 2017 aren’t the ones calling for another amnesty now?

Besides the issue of the demand for an amnesty, there is the broader issue of a culture of lawlessness plaguing public passenger vehicle operators. There is no denying that many Jamaican taxi men drive irresponsibly. Just this week amid the nationwide protest, I saw a video floating around on social media of a red-plate bus driving in reverse on a busy thoroughfare, for some strange reason. This kind of behaviour is nothing new for taxi drivers, many of whom make a habit of parking on pedestrian crossings, overtaking chains of vehicles at a time and creating additional lanes of traffic, simply because they can.

SPIRIT OF ANARCHY

Although many taxi operators have managed to evade the culture of lawlessness, the majority of those operating in the Corporate Area seem to have been intoxicated with the spirit of anarchy. Even where there is no clear benefit, they find a way to break traffic laws.

This could explain why the traffic ticket amnesty is being called for primarily by taxi drivers. Cabbies aren’t the only demographic of Jamaicans who operate vehicles, yet they seem to be the only group featuring so many members who have managed to rack up hundreds of tickets. That says something.

Unfortunately, the lack of regard for law and order among so many taxi drivers is typically excused or justified by sympathizers who feel that as low-income earners, taxi drivers should be allowed to do as they please to make a living. Making a living is all well and good, until you begin endangering others and creating mayhem.

Furthermore, taxi drivers seem to be known for their untempered, hot-headedness. In the height of the protest, civilians watched as law-abiding taxi drivers were abused by colleagues, because of their unwillingness to pledge allegiance to a strike that made no sense. It was felt by the abusive taxi operators that the entire band must stand together against the Government. Taxi operators who were of a different persuasion had passengers bullied out of their vehicles, had their car wheels punctured, and had their vehicles damaged in other ways. The irony is that the protesting taxi drivers claim they are being treated as though they are hooligans.

Whether it is a misuse of the road or an endangerment of passengers, taxi drivers must be held to account for their conduct on public roads. Where any driver lacks the ability to keep the road rules in mind while driving, it is time for him to get off the road.

Kristen Gyles is a free-thinking public affairs opinionator. Email feedback to kristengyles@gmail.com