Mototaxis: a Fast but Dangerous Way Around Caracas

Caracas has some of the worst traffic problems in the world – as cheap petrol subsidized by the Chavez government encourages people to drive. With gridlock a common occurance, mototaxis are proving increasingly popular, despite the evident dangers.

Published

6 months ago

Categories

World

Topics

Motorcycles, South America

Places

Venezuela, Caracas

Transcript

SCRIPT: Caracas has 1.7 million cars – more than one for every two residents – and with subsidized petrol in the oil-rich country making it cheap to get behind the wheel, the result is almost permanent gridlock. (pics of motorbike taxis passing terrible traffic) This is where motorbike taxis come in – a quick way to zip around the traffic. SOUNDBITE 1 Dilia Ardila, mototaxi user (Spanish,10 s): “Caracas is a pretty congested city, with an awful lot of people, so to get somewhere quicker when I’m in a hurry, I use a mototaxi” (Principalmente porque Caracas es una ciudad bastante congestionada, con mucha afluencia de personas. Entonces para poder llegar más rápido a un lugar cuando estoy apurada, uso el moto taxi). Most mototaxis do stick to some safety rules – like making sure clients wear a helmet – but they’re also frequently seen driving on pavements, going the wrong way down a one-way street, or talking on the phone – so plenty of travellers are scared off. SOUNDBITE 2 Celina Pedrozo, waiting for a conventional taxi (Spanish, 26 sec): “I’d rather preserve my life, they’re too dangerous, I don’t like them. I’d rather be in queue for an hour, sitting down comfortably, than on the back of a motorbike waiting for people to kill me. They don’t drive well, they don’t respect the law, no-one controls them. If they were regulated by the transport ministry that would be perfect but thy aren’t, anyone can be a motorbike taxi,” ( Preservo mi vida. Son peligrosos, no me gustan. Prefiero estar una hora en una cola, esperando comodamente sentada, que estar en una moto esperando a que la gente me mate. Porque no manejan bien, no respetan las leyes, nada, no hay un control sobre ellos. Si hubiese un control del ministerio de transporte perfecto, pero no hay un control, cualquiera es un motorizado, cualquiera es un mototaxi, no tienen control. ) Her fears aren’t unjustified – a thousand people have been killed in motorbike accidents in Venezuela so far this year. There’s also a risk of crime – stories of thefts and assaults committed by motorbike taxi drivers fill the local press. Road safety groups say they need to be better regulated - but also that clients should realize they’re perpetuating a cycle of bad behaviour. SOUNDBITE 3 Celia Herrera- President of the Venezuelan Transport and Roadways Society (Spanish, 25 sec): ‘It’s hypocrisy, people say; if I don’t take a motorbike I’ll never get there, but what they’re saying is, I’ll go faster between the cars, I’ll ride on the pavements, I’ll ignore traffic lights, I’ll go the wrong way on a one-way street. Really they’re agreeing to break rules that are fundamental to citizenship and road safety to get somewhere faster” (“ Sin embargo hay un doble discurso cuando alguien te dice -Si no voy en moto, no llego- en el fondo te está diciendo que -me voy más rápido por que circulo entre vehículos, me monto por las aceras, no respeto los semáforos, voy en sentido contrario al flujo vehicular. En el fondo está diciendo que va a romper con una seria de normas de las mas elementales de ciudadania y circulación para llegar temprano a un sitio. ) In a city where it can often take an hour to drive a couple of miles, though, road safety efforts are unlikely to dent the popularity of motorbikes – 300,000 new ones have been sold this year in Venezuela. SHOTLIST: -VAR of terrible traffic in Caracas -VAR of moto-taxi drivers SOUNDBITE 1 -VAR of client getting on taxi -mototaxi driver talking on the phone while driving SOUNDBITE 2 -VAR of motorbike accident -VAR of client taking a mototaxi SOUNDBITE 3 -VAR of motorbikes passing through traffic