The growing demand for Public Transportation in TCI

#TurksandCaicos, March 3, 2022 – The recent incident involving the alleged heinous crime committed by a jitney driver in Providenciales, should be a wake-up call for the country and a reminder of the importance of having a more reliable form of public transportation system in place.

In any developing countries, public transportation plays an extremely important role in economic development and typically a more reliable means to get from point A to point B.

Unfortunately, in TCI, other than taxi cabs, we have none. With that being said, Jitneys in TCI are deemed illegal, but they are widely accepted as a means of public transportation primarily due to easy access and cost.

With the lack of a well-connected public transport infrastructure in place, costly cab fees, illegal Jitneys are filling the void.

Although Jitneys are serving a purpose, it could be just as problematic, because it creates an opportunity for persons operating in the shadows to put citizens at risk and prey on the most vulnerable.

With the high cost of living, particularly for those living in Providenciales, many low income workers are not in a position to own a proper working vehicle. The ease with which they can access these jitneys also contributes to the demand.

The desire to own an affordable vehicle could be further precipitated by the laws that were recently enacted in TCI, banning the importation of motor vehicles older than 10 years as well as used and retreaded tires.

As much as I have tried to disconnect the two issues, I’m finding they are intrinsically connected in some form, due to the potential trickle down economic impact on citizens.

If the aim of the policy is to curb environmental impact or to help reduce emissions control in an effort to support global warming initiatives, perhaps, the focus should be on providing clean energy source which would have been much more impactful.

In a small developing nation like TCI, with limited investment of any kind in light or large scale manufacturing, this could do more harm than good to certain segment of the population.

I’m not an economist, but against the backdrop of this Covid-19 climate that significantly impacted our economy leaving many jobless, some would agree the timing of this policy was not very helpful.

There are several benefits to having public transportation in place.

First of all, it increases a community’s access to other areas. Small businesses off the beaten path will also benefit because it will expand their potential market.

Workers without personal transportation will now have a more reliable way to get to and from their jobs at a reasonable cost, thereby expanding the labor pool.

With hospitality and transportation services being our key industry and most workers only making minimum wage, only creates further hardship.

It behooves the government to really take a closer look at the types of foreign investments they are advocating for and focus more on areas of need for the benefit of the people.

Having said that, if the government is not willing to venture into the arena of mass transportation, they should seek to implement subsidies to encourage local business entrepreneurs to do so.

This is what I would consider a framework for social inclusion and real citizens empowerment.

At the end of the day, we have to be vigilant about holding our government accountable, to include leaders being proactive to strategic growth challenges and growing demands.

It starts with making sure that any policies that are being put in place and the way they’re implemented are constructive.

Only then will these policies actually lead to improving our situation rather than making them more challenging.

Ed Forbes,

Concerned citizen of Grand Turk