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MARIO J. TORRES
Transportation in Cuba Today
In Cuba there is practically no
means of transportation supplied by the state: almost no regular local buses
or taxis. Instead, a variety of new means of transportation have arisen:
(a) Horse and buggy
(b) Taxi-bikers
(c) "Pirate" taxi-drivers
(d) Trucks with trailers carrying people like cattle.
(e) People's own bicycles
(f) On foot
Many people solve their transportation problems by patiently standing in a
long line waiting until a man leading a horse and buggy arrives and packs
them up towards their destination bumping and swinging in a slow, agonic,
awful, uncomfortable, long, and expensive journey. This kind of "picturesque
scenery" suggests a travel through time more than 100 years back in history
which for sure will not be seen nowadays anywhere in the world.
Bicycles have been adapted with a sidecar, and poor riders take two or three
people with their luggage or bags through kilometers of either hills, rain,
mud, or dark to earn their living. These bikers must pay the state high
taxes for their work.
Car owners (most American cars are from 1958 or before and they are well
preserved because the most recent ones have been Russian) illegally charge
desperate passengers a lot of money for taking them to their destinations.
Some other car owners have legal permits, but they must pay a high fee to
the state. There are doctors or engineers with Russian cars who "lease" them
to other drivers so as to get some money without exposing themselves to any
risk and they go to work on a bicycle.
Potent truck engines have been prepared, and large trailers have been hooked
up to their rear. These trailers can pack lots of people mostly
standing.This is very uncomfortable and almost unbearable due to the large
number of people that gather inside, the lack of air, the pickpockets, the
sweat, the pushing, and the shoving, etc. This is the basic means of
transportation in Havana City and they are popularly called CAMELS because
of the shape of their trailers.
The government has also sold one bicycle to every citizen, so doctors,
teachers, dentists, and other professionals ride on bikes to their jobs, and
the streets become full of bikes during rush hours. Big state and private
(with permit) bike parking lots have been prepared everywhere in every city
in which many people earn their living as parking lot attendants, preventing
robbery which has increased considerably.
Government officials, on the contrary, travel by car and have a special gas
supply that the few regular car owners in the population do not have access
to.
Inter-province transportation has to be scheduled more than one month before
traveling because of the reduced number of buses, trains, or planes; and
many people have to sleep in bus terminals or get into long waiting lists to
preserve their tickets.
In the island, brands of new cars have never been seen except for tourist
service which is equipped with everything and Havana seems to be divided
into the tourist section, bright and luxurious and the people's section,
dark with blackouts and soot.
Finally, if anybody who is not going too far rejects all of the above
alternatives, he'd better go on foot.
All this is not due to any embargo, but to the stubbornness of a dictator.
MARIO J TORRES
JANUARY 2004
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