The commuter’s nightmare

It’s a battle. Not a battle involving bullets but battle all the same. You pride yourself in being quick. But half an hour pass and you are still not on your way home. More and more passengers crowd the stand. Someone gets frustrated and flags down a motorcycle. Then from around the corner of Rubangura roundabout, three taxes on the same route appear all at once. Grace Umutoni who looks very tired and frustrated runs desperately to get into the tax but as she gets closer to the door, the taxi gets full. “Oh my God”, she laments. She stands for the while, another taxis comes and again she runs very first to get in but finds it again full.After a number of failed attempts she wonders will she ever get home! “I am tired of chasing taxes, it’s getting late yet I want to go back home early enough and take care of my children,” she speaks to no one in particular. Many people with such responsibilities cannot get home in time due to insufficient taxis in town. The situation also becomes insecure due to huge crowds and overwhelming disorder at Rubangura stand. Currently, Rubangura serves as the only assembly point for busses and commuter taxies in the city centre. Umutoni who always boards taxis at this stand said that getting into a tax or a bus during these rush hours time is a battle; only the strongest can get in. Ladies and old people always report home late because they cannot fight with men to get into the tax. A person who has never been to Rubangura’s taxi stand in one of the evening rush hours can’t imagine the astringent of getting a vehicle back home. The situation has gone worse to non energetic people who can’t fight; it’s indeed total chaos there. Consequently some passengers finally on board realize only later that they are being taken in totally the wrong direction. Amidst the madness and in their desperation they had boarded the wrong bus! Umutoni further said that it’s increasingly difficult to find a bus or taxi to your destination in the evening rush-hour, but you get the additional challenge of risking your life fighting through the crowd of pedestrians and vehicles. She said that drivers make matters worse. Preferring to take passengers going to nearby areas of Gikondo, Nyenyeri, Nyabugogo, Kicukiro, they abandon those traveling further a field. “It’s only later when no most passengers have gone that then they begin calling those passengers going to such distant areas,” she said. Deo Sibomana a businessman in the city said that the condition has worsened. Nowadays figures can be spotted climbing through taxi windows! He went on to explain that passengers pay no attention whatsoever to others as they fight to find the rare vehicle that might take them to their home. “Many people have lost their belongings such as mobile phones, watches, hand bags, necklaces and other expensive goods due to endless fighting for each taxi that enters the stand,” he said. He further called for government intervention into public transport reasoning that passengers fed up of daily fighting for taxis resort to walking. “Don’t think that whoever you see walking back home don’t have money, it’s the only way to reaching home safely with all your belongings and on time,” Sibomana disclosed. The situation is worse still when it rains and people become even more desperate to board the taxis. The stand has also small special hire taxis but they are expensive charging Frw500 to places like Remera. The situation is not limited to evenings. Morning rush hour is just as bad. If you happen to be out about at this time, you will notice many passengers marooned and puzzled about what to do next. Students who study in distant schools waste a lot of time on stands waiting for taxis. According to the president of the association of Commuter Taxis Drivers (Atraco) Rtd. Col. Dodo Twahirwa, there are enough taxis in the city, the problem is most passengers travel at the same time. In an interview at his office this week Twahirwa acknowledged the problem: “We are trying to import in more buses to ease transport in Kigali City.” “In some cases when passengers are many, we even call taxis operating outside Kigali city to come and render us a service.” He further explained that drivers have a problem. In rush hour when they take people to the city in the morning, they drive empty vehicles when going back to pick more passengers from their respective stands and this not cost effective. During mid day time, some the drives stop running the service because there are so few passengers. He encouraged passengers not to t travel in rush hour if at all possible. “If you’re not rushing for something, midday is very convenient for every passenger,” Twahirwa said. Ends