The woes of public transport

Where do I start, public transport is becoming an oppression in my life that has forced me to start thinking about buying a car of my own. However, realistically, this is not going to happen soon. Inconvenience has become part of my life every morning and evening. The mornings start with a thirty minute wait for a taxi to Remera! Then when a taxi arrives, I have to hustle to get in. Just when I have started making myself comfortable, the taxi conductor instructs that we sit five per sit, can you imagine that? At that point I feel like getting out but since I have to get to work on time, I just bundle myself up as small as I can and swallow my misery…complaining would have me thrown out of the taxi. Three minutes later I am in the Remera taxi park to an even worse struggle. I wait for minutes no end and when a coaster finally comes, people flock it and a battle ensues. Respect is lost here as the young forget the elders and the men forget the women. It is a battle ground where every man or woman is for him/herself. I have this feeling that the ones who manage to get in have some battle experience because believe me; you don’t want to be caught amidst these people. So, I am forced to wait for the number of people to decrease then freely hop into a coaster, ok not exactly freely because some People are so used to fighting that even when we are few and can all fit into the coaster, someone still manages to poke you in the ribs with their elbows and another grinds your toes. Sometimes, I get lucky and a bus comes as I am waiting for a taxi. I say lucky because it’s cheaper and goes straight to town and so saves me from the hustle in the gare but that’s where the luck stops. The bus that is supposed to carry about thirty-seven passengers carries about 50. One can’t breathe and you find yourself sitted next to this irritatingly talkative guy who can’t just keep quiet so that by the time you arrive in town, your well ironed and pressed clothes are all crumpled up and you have a headache. And it doesn’t stop there; you are so tired from work, you have had an exhausting day and your boss hasn’t appreciated all the effort you’ve put in and then you reach Kwa Rubangura and you find no coasters to your destination. I noticed that the people going to Remera suffer the most because the coasters are at that time going to Kanombe, Kimironko, and Nyenyeri. So there are many people there waiting for Remera and when a coaster plying that route finally comes, well, I just can’t find the words to describe what goes on then. People literally move on top of each other, others pass through the front door go on leaping onto chairs to the back and don’t imagine I am talking about guys only, even the women do this. I once saw a mother with a baby struggling not minding the child on her back and I just asked myself what the struggle for a ride home is turning people into. All this I used to see but last Saturday I got the experience first class. I had to pass through the driver’s door to get a sit and when I finally got one I was sitted amongst four people with only half my butt sitted on a metal that kept eating at me. My back was suffering seeing as I was sitted in a forty five degree angle with no room for turning. I was practically a forty five degrees half-butt sitted statue. Sounds funny? Well it didn’t feel anywhere near funny to me. It was a painful experience to Remera. I silently cursed and cursed but to no avail, there was no way I could instruct the taxi conductor to reduce on the number of people since I’m no police officer. This brings me to ask myself what the traffic police are doing because they are certainly not doing their job. This type of over loading is absurd; people are going to die in high numbers in event of accidents. I remember my cousin narrating to me how a bus she was in failed to climb up a hill and almost caused a big accident hadn’t it stopped just in time. Can you imagine what would have happened if it had crashed into the vehicles behind it? I don’t even want to think about it. The government should also increase on the number of public transport vehicles so we can stop fighting and injuring each other and enjoy our tax money. Contact: nmranne@yahoo.com