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2 November, 2009 10:50:03 | in General

Can Worker Reform Improve Public Transportation?

By
Nathan Paluck

Inca ruins aren't what first awe visitors to Peru. Nor the fresh ceviche.

It's the traffic.

In a constant flow of what appears to be near accidents, vehicles in Lima jostle for position, sneak across boulevards and dart in and out of roundabouts. To cross a street on foot, pedestrians often run.

Often named as culprits for the chaos are the buses, vans and drivers that comprise Lima's privately-owned public transportation system. In a 2008 poll, "the problem of pubic transportation" was cited as Lima's second biggest problem. Bus drivers have been called "barbarians" by the established press.   

"We all know there's a problem and we blame the [bus] drivers," sociologist Claudia Bielich told LivingInPeru over the phone. "My idea was to find out why they drive like they do."


In her 2007 study, Bielich investigated the inner workings of three transport companies and interviewed their management, drivers and assistants. (The results were presented to the public this week; a link to the paper is included below.) What she discovered is a competitive system with little government regulation, where drivers and their assistants make a living only by competing for passengers -- by fighting in la guerra del centavo, the battle for a cent.

Critics have described the Lima public transportation system as informal, but Bielich argues that it's largely formal. Companies buy concessions to work certain routes from city government. Things get muddled within the company, where the formality of the labor varies by company. In most cases, the vehicles are owned by individuals who pay the company to use the route. The vehicle owners find drivers and assistants (whose responsibilities include collecting passenger fares) to operate the buses and vans, in most cases charging the drivers to rent the bus.

http://filer.livinginperu.com/
Claudia Bielich, sociologist and author of the study.
The driver and the assistant work an average of 16-18 hours a day, Bielich reports, and have no fixed salary and no benefits. They have no formal employer, and rent the vehicle on a day-today basis. "Not having a fixed salary forces them to find passengers, which is why they opt for tactics that can cause congestion and disorder," writes Bielich.

Two common driver tactics -- to which any visitor who has used a combi, or van, can attest -- are trolling for passengers and racing against the competition. Drivers stall at spots with dense foot traffic, waiting for more passengers (Bielich calls this chantarse); they also drive aggressively and race against other bus drivers to position themselves well for the next stop (this tactic is called corretear).

Many companies require a specific time distance between their vehicles, on threat of penalties for drivers, which are kept track by employees along the route called dateros. The demand of a consistent frequency and the need to pick up passengers has a frenetic result: "[Drivers] start to troll and then when they're short on time to make the clock, they fly," said one driver interviewed by the study. "They drop off passengers like crazy men."             

How can the public transportation system be fixed?
A reform of the incentives within transportation companies is the only way, Bielich concludes. To escape la guerra del centavo, she says, transportation companies should directly own the vehicle fleet and drivers and assistants should be made formal employees of the companies, with fixed salaries and benefits.

"It's the city's responsibility [to bring reform]," Bielich said over the phone, "but they're more interested in infrastructure projects and bringing the bus fleets up to date."

El Metropolitano, a 40-kilometer bus-only corridor, is one current city project that hopes to alleviate traffic and speed up travel (the average speed of travel in Lima is an achingly slow 16.8 kilometers per hour, according to a study done by the city). Analysts, including Bielich, say it's a positive and necessary step. But El Metropolitano will only satisfy an estimated 8-10 percent of trips. That project alone won't solve the disorder on the streets.

The current system, chaotic as it may be, does benefit consumers by its sheer supply of transportation. In 1991, the Fuijimori administration privatized public transportation and allowed the import of used vehicles. Those measures are credited with satisfying the demand from a metropolitan population that expanded rapidly throughout the '90s. And now, as Bielich says, "you can find transportation at any hour in any corner."

With no overhauls of the public transportation system in the works, Lima residents can expect the status quo -- and maybe a bit of correteo from a passenger-hungry driver, in their combi rides for the near future.

The study, sponsored by Instituto de Estudios Peruanos and Consorcio de Investigación Económica y Social, can be downloaded here.

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4 Comments

# Martin says :
7 November, 2009 [ 12:19 ]
Public transportation can be improved if a serious program of giving tickets ["multas"] to the vehicles that drive contrary to traffic regulations. The owners of the vehicles would have to pay the fines. Now the police do almost nothing unless there is an accident.
# JUAN CARLOS GAMARRA CARRERA says :
7 November, 2009 [ 01:50 ]
HI:
MY NAME IS JUAN CARLOS GAMARRA CARRERA, 52 AND I USE TO DRIVE BUSSES IN ASPEN COLORADO FOR 14 YEARS AN I HAVE SOME IDEAS CAN HELP THE TRANSPORT HERE IN PERU SO IF THE GOVERMENT NEEDS SOME HELP IN ORGANIZE THE TRANSIT I CAN HELP OK.

THANK YOU
# Boris Tarnawiecki says :
16 November, 2009 [ 05:09 ]
The peruvian government needs to look at other countries for proven solutions to the Lima trafic problem.  I have vicited Thailand several times for business purposes and I can't stop to be impresed by their infrastructure.  Thailand has a system of elevated freeways which go all accross Bangkok.  These freeways are built on pilars at about 6 meters from the ground.  You can drive through the city at 180 km/h.  Like going from Chorrillos to Callao in 15 min.  Thailand also has an impecable sky train and subway. However, the most impresive part is that Thailand's percapita income is about the same as the Peruvian percapita income.  Why Thailand can do it and not the peruvians?
What is wrong with the peruvians who continue to live in a shameful state of kaos?  Money?  No.  It is proven that it is not about money.
It about believe and initiative.   
# Richard Rodriguez says :
19 November, 2009 [ 02:00 ]
Living in Lima these past 3 years has lead me to believe that no amount of company or job restructuring or imposing of fines will fix this serious public safety problem. It is a "mind-set" here that when operating a motor vehicle to be first in line at all costs, to be the person out in front, to completely disregard safety and common courtesy to achieve "position." It is a constant race to be first. Trying to give someone a fine for breaking a law is also a joke here. The police are corrupt and not only will they accept a payoff; they actually bring-up the topic and encourage it. To add to this safety problem buses are poorly maintained and more often than not, in terrible condition. If the government were to try and impose new regulations, enforcement would be highly unlikely for that same reason; corruption, coupled with a lack of enforcement recourses. Furthermore, any attempt toward governmental regulation in Peru is often met with protest marches, work stoppages, road blockages and finally, the government acquiesces.  The problems associated with the buses seems to be rooted in my view of the common Peruvian's thinking that they must be first in line, that they generally do not extend common courtesies when in public situations (such as in stores where most people will actually interrupt a sale in progress by shouting out they want a product rather than waiting their turn to be helped). It is my humble opinion, based solely upon an outsider's observation, that the only cure for this problem is social reengineering and reeducation. Perhaps the problem is rooted in a time when resources were scarce and one needed to be aggresive or be forced to do without? Whatever the cure, it will be a long, arduous process at best.

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