Crashed bus (Photo: Beatrice Murch)
In Argentina, and particularly in Buenos Aires, headlines about road accidents and fatalities are a regular feature in the news. On 15th September, 11 people were killed in Flores after the 76 bus, a tram, and a cement lorry collided. Two days earlier, in the same neighbourhood, a train crashed into a bus that was crossing the railway tracks, killing 11 and injuring 200 people.
Each day in Argentina, 21 people die due to road accidents. It is one of the most dangerous countries in South America for road fatalities, which is the highest cause of death in the country for under 35-year-olds. According to NGO ‘Luchemos por la vida’ (Fight for Life), 12% of these are caused by buses, which, nationwide, transport some 5.8 million passengers each day.
Possible Explanations
Buses in the capital are all owned by various, private companies. This has led to an overlap in the routes the bus lines ply, as each competes for passengers. Alberto José Silveira, the president of ‘Luchemos por la vida’, which was set up with the goal of decreasing Argentine road accidents notes that “On Corrientes avenue, there are maybe eight bus lines. This is too much, if there were only one, it would be better organised with less collisions.”
A demanding schedule, in which bus drivers are given a certain amount of time to complete their route, is another source of risk. The bus drivers often have a timetable to comply to and if they complete routes quicker, they can relax for 15 minutes before going out again. Santiago, a bus driver for line 36 who did not want to give his full name, believes that “the rapid turnaround times are to blame for the speeding. There is so much traffic these days so the routes take longer but we still want a break to have a coffee or smoke”.
A 2008 survey conducted by the Transport Union (UTA) discovered that 88% of bus drivers admitted that to drive to schedule involves driving in an unsafe way. Similarly the long, often 12 hour, days that the bus drivers complete in the city can lead to frustration or drowsiness, either of which can make a driver dangerous.
Speeding bus at night (Photo: Beatrice Murch)
The vehicles themselves are another problem. Bus travel in Buenos Aires has been heavily subsidised by the government since the 2001 economic crisis, accounting now for nearly 70% of every ticket. Although this means that the buses are one of the cheapest in the world, there is often not enough investment or demand for additional safety measures or the modernisation of the vehicles. Mr. Silveira thinks that the subsidies have resulted in “passengers with no right to claim to improve the buses, as they hardly pay for their tickets”.
What to do?
In 2008, the National Road Safety Agency (ANSV) was created to improve road safety throughout Argentina. It received a US$30 million loan from the World Bank to reduce accidents and deaths, commonly performing road checks and reprimanding drivers for drink driving, speeding offences and ignoring red lights. However, according to Mr. Silveira, since its launch, there has been no particular decrease in the number of road accidents.
Jota Leonetti, a journalist and founder of a traffic website believes the ANSV idea is positive but fundamentally people need to change their daily road habits, especially in the capital. “There needs to be much more order, respect and teaching. It is also a social question: many young people die on our roads, which is economically bad for the country too. Driving in Buenos Aires is crazy; the companies owning the bus lines just do what they want”.
Bus lane (Photo: Beatrice Murch)
The federal police assure that there are countless CCTV cameras around the city and when a bus speeds or commits other offences such as crossing red lights, the company gets fined around $300. According to Clarín, last year, bus line 15, for example, received 102 fines; half of these were for ignoring red lights.
However, the enforcement of the fines is questionable, Mr. Silveria stressed that “The police do not ensure that companies pay fines. They often claim they are too busy doing other things, often they accept negotiations with fines”. According to The World Health Organisation 2008 statistics, the reprimand rate for speeding in the country is only 30%.
To improve circulation in Buenos Aires, the city government has set up a lane just for buses in key avenues such as Juan B. Justo, Callao and Sante Fe. Though controversial, it is widely supported by bus drivers as it equates to quicker and safer access. Bus line 39 driver, Arturo Rodríguez, says this is the answer: “with bus-only lanes, there are no motorbikes or other vehicles in the way. The government should install more.”
Other changes are underway. Last year, manual photo cameras began operating in certain parts of the city, able to pull over offending vehicles within minutes of an infraction. As of this April, a line of buses has been set up in Vicente Lopez for the elderly and youngsters, which only allows women to drive them as they are deemed to be safer drivers.
Unfortunately, new measures are too often undermined by a lack of enforcement and false promises.
At the site of the Flores tragedy, for example, there is a sign claiming that the government will install a tunnel for the trains, so the buses wouldn’t have to cross the tracks. The sign has been up for four years, yet still nothing has been done.
Click here to find out what locals think of buses in the capital.
Laura, a former student of mine works for a well known US company in Buenos Aires. His father-in-law is the guy with the money in the family, however. This patriarch owns several bus lines and in their intimate family conversations he has related how he must make monthly secret deposits of huge amounts of cash. This is a regular, scheduled bribe I am told that is required by all bus line owners. This money is no doubt divided among a handful of govt. ministry officials. This won’t be exposed, this is how the Argentine govt. it run. Very little is open and transparent and so much seems to be corrupt, the exposure of which could risk your life. Another CEO of a German company told me he received a call from a top govt. official on his cell phone. He was told to comply with what the govt. wanted or “we know what your wife does during the day and where your children go to school.” This is the Argentina I know and will always remember, a country not distantly removed from one military govt. after another, the only south american country that didn’t cooperate with the Allies in WWII, one who gave refuge to Nazis, and one that threw its own people out of airplanes over the river, then gave the killers amnesty. Everything is entangled in Argentina.
Argentines are quick to criticize the US but they have short memories. It’s true that the country refused to side with the Allies in World War II. Peron himself was trained in Nazi Germany and was an admirer of the fascists. Argentina became a haven for Nazi war criminals. There have been two horrible attacks on Jewish targets in Buenos Aires (AMIA and Israeli embassy) resulting in many deaths — but the investigations have not had the cooperation of the authorities. After nearly two decades no one has been brought to trial. Argentina’s claim to the Falklands led to war by the last military government. If the government had had their way they would have imposed military dictatorship on a peaceful people. Despite all this and what was stated in the previous post (and let’s not forget the bombs that were dropped by the military on the Plaza de Mayo to force Peron out of office) many Argentines seem to think that they have the moral high ground….
Contrary to popular belief, I don’t think Argentine drivers are all that suicidal. What they are are masters of improvisation, particularly where the infrastructure fails them. Add to this a short temper, and you have a recipe for the daily chaos and frequent disaster.
Traffic in Argentina surprises drivers constantly. There’s poor signposting, insufficient separation from conflicting traffic, sudden movement of other traffic participants, unmarked obstructions, potholes, and so on.
Every once in a while, I drive west on Av. Rivadavia and then back on Av. Directorio. Rivadavia has lots of taxis and buses, and the city ran out of paint for marking the lanes west of Once. Even at the best of times, it is a madhouse. Av. Directorio doesn’t seem to have much bus or taxi traffic. And the lanes are clearly marked. The difference of how people drive is striking. Everything is smooth, orderly, feels safe.
Having to deal with the unexpected on a constant basis foments a culture of improvisation. A culture where you don’t expect you can rely on the rules but have to interpret the situation and make your own ad hoc decisions. Traffic is a uniquely bad place for taking a moment to contemplate the state of the world and your role in it.
The high density of buses in the city doesn’t help either. With frequent stops, they change lanes all the time upsetting the other traffic. Often, they don’t have anywhere to go on the side, so they simply stop, making the traffic behind them change lanes. Worse yet, they block your sight, making you feel even more trapped when traffic suddenly stalls.
Of course, there undeniably is also a lot of stupid driving that adds further trouble, reinforces the state of chaos, and makes accidents more dangerous. But putting all the blame on the drivers gives the government a way too easy excuse for not holding up its side of the bargain.
Things that would make a big difference in the city include extending the subway network and reducing the number of buses, maintaining consistent and clear signposting and street markings, and keeping the streets free from unnecessary obstacles. And yes, no level crossings, for crying out loud.
All these are mainly engineering tasks. Politics, apart from enabling the engineering work, would have to accompany all this by creating further incentives for using public transportation. The engineering side is pretty much textbook work, you just have to do it. Balancing the incentives is harder. There’s still a chance for politicians to distinguish themselves with new ideas
- Werner