COVID-19 and Public Transportation in The Bahamas

COVID-19 and Public Transportation in The Bahamas Two hours. Two hours is how long a young man, in his early 20s, stood at the most Western part of New Providence waiting for a ride home after a long day at work. Two hours is how long this young man, who stands on a deserted highway, waited for someone with compassion to offer him a ride. When asked, “Do you have anyone to call, is there someone you can reach out to?”

His only response was, “No ma’am”. With a little over an hour left before our curfew at 7:00 p.m., he was more than 45 minutes away from his home in Bain Town. With heavy hearts, we were able to drop him halfway to his destination with hopes that someone would be able to get him home. It was in this moment that I witnessed, first hand, the adverse and unjust effects of our COVID-19 Emergency Orders. In this moment, I wish that I would’ve been able to do more.

I wish that we could’ve dropped him all the way to his destination, but in doing so, we would’ve broken our curfew. We would’ve broken these same Emergency Orders that got this young man into a dilemma in the first place.

He’s not the only one suffering on the horns of a dilemma.

Three times per week is how often 73 year old, Mr. Rolle, must spend his pension money to take the jitney to the hospital, for his life saving dialysis. The jitney is his only means of transport from place to place.

Thousands of dollars is how much our local jitney drivers spent to ensure that their jitneys met government specified COVID-19 safety standards. This money was spent so that they could pay their bills and keep rooves over their families’ heads.

So the question is, if citizens and bus operators are doing their part, why can’t our government do theirs? The borders are open. Businesses are allowed to operate. How are our people, who are already struggling with the economic effects of a pandemic, to get to work? How are they to receive essential services? How are they to continue taking care of their families?

If citizens need to take the jitney to get essential services, isn’t the jitney an essential service?

Prior to the implementation of Emergency Powers (COVID 19 Pandemic) (No.3) Order, 2020 where it states that, “No person shall offer for hire or seek to travel on any public bus transportation”,i public transportation was allowed. On June 22nd, 2020 the Competent Authority, our Prime Minister, announced that, “Private and public bus services may resume, with 50 percent occupancy based on guidelines contained in the Ministry of Tourism’s Bahamas Tourism Readiness & Recovery Plan, effective Wednesday, 1st July, 2020” ii. This recovery plan outlines a list of safety protocols that were to be enforced by jitney operators. It includes measures such as sanitizing high touch areas (doors and handles), reducing the maximum capacity to 50%, ensuring that all passengers wear face masks, as well as many other measures iii. In an interview with Eyewitness News on July 29th, 2020, Harrison Moxey, United Public Transportation Company’s President told us that bus drivers have been following all protocols implemented by Government to help prevent the spread of COVID 19 iv. If this is true, why are we robbing them of their jobs, their income?

From a medical perspective, the biggest concern surrounding infectious diseases and public transportation is that consumers usually ride these vehicles in close proximity. Secondly, these vehicles are usually closed environments that don’t allow for proper ventilation v. Thankfully, as we saw in July, our local bus services are able to operate at a 50% capacity, utilizing natural air via windows as opposed to A/C. Researchers also point out the fact that using public transport is not as high risk as other public activities such as partying, going to meetings and going to church services where greater contagion has been identified due to having to speak or sing vi. In others words, because there is no need for much verbal communication when it comes to public transport, there is a smaller risk of spreading the virus. What scientific evidence has been produced to show that riding the jitney has caused the COVID-19 spike?

To say that we as a country can’t have both public transportation and properly manage COVID19 cases would be a false claim. There have been many cities and countries who have adjusted their transportation systems, without making them non-operational during the COVID-19 pandemic. A prime example would be New York, USA. Once a COVID-19 hotpot, announcing an average of 9,000 new cases per day during April, this city has never once shut down their subway system. Instead, they have shortened their hours of operation, closing the subways from 1-5 a.m. daily to reduce the amount of passengers and to allow for deep overnight sanitization.

They have also increased sanitization throughout the day and mandated that passengers utilize masks on board vii. New York has only reported 754 new cases of COVID-19 on August 1st, 2020, with a 7-day average of only 652 new casesviii.

We can also look at countries within the region and what they’ve done to keep public transport operational during this pandemic. Barbados, a country who has only reported 110 confirmed cases and 7 deaths as of July 30th, 2020 ix has allowed their public service vehicles and motor omnibuses to operate at 60% maximum capacity according to their country’s Emergency Management COVID-19 Order, 2020. This same emergency order mandates that no two passengers shall be allowed to sit directly next to each other, that these vehicles also sanitize before and after boarding passengers at their terminals, and finally, mandates that all drivers and passengers wear protective face masks x.

As stated before, we cannot open our country and not expect public transportation to be operational. We have elderly citizens who rely on our buses because they are unable to drive and don’t want to inconvenience their children and grandchildren by constantly asking for rides. It is hard for the younger generation to leave work to pick up Grammy’s medication or groceries when Grammy wants them. Moreover, we have essential workers who are needed more than ever but have to worry about finding rides to and from their long and tedious shifts. We have teenage boys and girls who must be the breadwinner for their families because other members have been laid off from their jobs due to said pandemic. Our children too may be impacted by our latest COVID-19 measures. Many are unable to access internet in their homes and have to find a location where they are able to learn remotely.

What about our bus drivers? If they are responsible for getting essential workers to their jobs, aren’t they too operating essential services? If Bahamians are depending on bus drivers to transport them to and from health facilities, how can we label these drivers as non-essential? I once again say, we can not expect our country to be open, but go ahead and disable our public transportation system. Finally, have we taken into consideration that disabling the public transportation system puts even more people out of jobs? We have seemed to forgotten that our bus system acts as a source of income for many Bahamian families.

We have seen that public transportation can be operational during a health pandemic around the world, but what are we willing to do to ensure that it can once again be operational in The Bahamas? The answer is simple: continue maintaining social distancing, continue the usage of face masks and shields on our buses, continue regular sanitization and maintaining a 50% occupancy rate and where we fall short, then we are to be held accountable. However, it is not fair to punish the average Bahamian for doing nothing wrong by ceasing public transportation.

Two hours. In those two hours that the young man spent waiting for a ride back home, he could have been spending time with his family, he could have been preparing for the impending storm that was to hit New Providence in just over 24 hours, he could have been resting. It is hard for those of us who are privileged enough to own vehicles or receive rides from those around us to truly understand the struggles that those who depend on our public transportation are currently facing. Yes, there is a risk to take if we make buses operational again, but that risk is minuscule when compared to opening our borders to COVID-19 hotspot countries or the risk of not doing wide spread testing.

Therefore, I appeal to our leaders to refer to the public transportation system as what it is – an essential service. If bus drivers are listed as essential service, while adhering to the protocols outlined by the government, Bahamian residents no longer have to worry about whether or not they will be to work on time. Bahamians would not have to worry about getting to the grocery store, a pharmacy, dialysis, a family member’s home in the case of an emergency or even to an establishment with a secure internet source as we embark upon another virtual academic term.

While we must do our best to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, we should remember that we are in a time of hardship and everything that we do should be done with a sense of empathy.

Dana Wallace & Celine Walkine

i https://opm.gov.bs/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/EmergencyPowersCovid19PandemicNo.3Order2020.pdf

ii https://opm.gov.bs/prime-minister-minnis-announces-reopening-of-beaches-gyms-and-public-

transportation/ iii https://www.bahamas.com/sites/default/files/articles/trrc_plan_public.pdf iv https://ewnews.com/public-transport-ban-two-middle-fingers-not-one

v Edelson, P. J., & Phypers, M. (2011). TB transmission on public transportation: a review of published studies and recommendations for contact tracing. Travel medicine and infectious disease, 9(1), 27-31.

vi https://www.transformative-mobility.org/news/the-new-findings-of-the-covid-19-in-public-transport

vii www.new.mta.info

viii https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html

ix https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/blog/covid-19-situation-report-june-30-2020/

x https://gisbarbados.gov.bb/download/emergency-management-covid-19-order-public-service-vehicles/