Transportation on St. Lucia

So I'll type up my observations of the classroom I'm interning in after I write it. But as a precursor, it might help for you to understand the transportation system a little, as one of the class lessons was about that. If you want to skip this informational, there are a couple paragraphs at the end of the post about daily things.

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So, to start out with, the roads are generally two lanes, even the major highways. We drive on the left side of the road, like in England. Roundabouts are common (and generally more efficient than traffic lights). Because the highways are two lanes, passing in the right lane is very common. It would be dangerous except that nearly everyone who drives takes great care about not passing if they have limited sight--if there's a curve or hill ahead and they couldn't get around fast enough in case a car comes the other way. Occasionally there are drivers who are much more reckless, but for the most part people don't pass unless they know it's safe. Except in towns sometimes, there aren't generally sidewalks, so people walking or waiting for buses are on the sides of the road, very close to where traffic is. This is kind of scary sometimes, if in a town on the highway, for example, a bus is picking up people on one side, a car is passing it, and a bus is going the other way in the left lane, with people standing on the side, I get afraid sometimes that peds will get hurt, but I guess people know how to take care of themselves so it doesn't happen much.

I'm not sure how many people own cars. Maybe around half of households, maybe less. If they do own one, it's often just one car per family. It seems like most people use the public transportation for the most part, although I live in an urban area where buses are common. I can't say for sure about more rural areas, but it still seems like buses are the main transport. It's also common to hitch rides from people you know who happen to be going the same way, or sometimes even from people you don't know. The nice thing about hitching is the drivers you know don't really expect any money, since they're going the same direction anyways.

The buses carry up to 15 people, more if small children are on board, since they sit on their moms' laps, and if they do that they aren't charged the price of a seat. The front seat (the one place I haven't ridden yet and don't really want to ride in) has the driver, and space for two passengers. The four rows behind that have seats for two, with an aisle with flip seats that you pull down. So without flip seats, a bus could hold 12 people (3 in front, 3 in back, 2 in middle three rows). Most buses have radios on them, but not all drivers have them on. I've found it's more likely to have a radio on for long bus rides, such as from Vieux Fort up to Castries (a commute I'm all too familiar with now). Many buses have handles on the back of the main seats (not the flip seats) to hold on to when going on curves. The buses without handles are a little more stressful to ride on, since it's a mountainous island with lots of curves and hairpin turns. There are sliding windows for most seats, and as long as the bus is moving, there's a nice breeze that keeps you cool, even when it's hot out. If the bus is standing still for a while, it is very hot.

To catch a bus, you wait on the side of the road anywhere buses pass by, and when one comes, you signal it--I point the direction I'm going, sometimes moving my hand up and down as I do so. A bus will pass if it's full, or will pull over and let you in if it's not--they often honk and blink their hazard lights either way. You get in, sit down, and get off at your stop, where you pay the driver. Alternately, if you're in a city or town already and are going out of the city, you go to a bus stand. Each destination pairing usually has its own bus stand, where lots of buses line up or park and wait to fill up. For long trips to different towns, you pay the driver before leaving the stand. Unless you're getting off at the final destination--in the bus stand--to get off the bus you ask the bus driver to stop. "Stoppin' here," "Bus stop, driver," "Stop at the gap," or any variation on this theme, are generally sufficient. A gap, by the way, is an intersection, whether three-way or fourway or whatever. The driver pulls to the side of the road, if possible, lets off the passenger, collects payment and gives change as necessary, and moves on.

Fare is based on distance traveled. For example, to get from my neighborhood to downtown Vieux Fort, it's EC$1.25; to go from VF downtown to downtown Castries (very southern tip of the island, around most of the east coast, through the rainforest across the island ridge [barre isle], to the northwestern bit) is EC$7; to get from downtown Castries (a few blocks away from where the VF bus drops me off) to the highway where the Peace Corps office is costs $1.25. Though this commute ends up being $19 a day round trip, it's still less expensive than owning a car, since gas costs currently EC$12.75 (that's about $4.76US) per gallon, and it's probably 45 miles each way, certainly more than a gallon of gas. The bus isn't faster, though, which is why some people (like my host dad) make the commute anyways. Bus drivers earn their livings from the fares they collect, so they like to keep buses as full as possible. If there's a broken flip seat, that means the driver will never collect fare on it, so it's a sizeable loss throughout the day.

For much of the trip, buses travel at 70-80mph, slowing down to 50-60mph for turns, and much slower for hairpin turns. They also must slow down if behind a vehicle they can't safely pass, or behind several vehicles with a slow one in front. They're supposed to slow down as they go through towns, but unless people are boarding or getting off the bus, they don't really. It takes me about 1hour 40 minutes total, including walking and waiting for buses to leave the bus stands, to get to the PC office in the morning. It takes longer in the afternoon to get home, since there's a longer walk between bus stands in Castries and it takes longer to get a full bus load.

For the most part, buses are pretty safe. I know I've only been using them for a week and a half, but I haven't felt unsafe at any point, aside from getting used to very fast drivers. There are wrecks somewhat often, but they rarely cause injury. The other day there was a child that vomited on the bus, but her mom caught it in a plastic bag. Luckily I was a few rows back from where that was going on, so I didn't get a single whiff of it. When people get on a bus, it's very common for them to say "Good morning" or "Good afternoon," and to have nearly everyone on the bus respond with the same in unison.

Taxis are also common on the island. For the most part, they are also minibuses, but they are for comission and cost much more. I think it costs around EC$100 to get from Vieux Fort to Castries, but I'm not sure if this depends on the number of passengers--having 1 person pay the whole amount of that vs. having 5 split the cost, or if it would cost more to have 5 people than just 1. It also probably depends on the driver--people like to get to know specific taxi drivers, so they develop friendly relationships and might not be charged quite as much as others would.

The scariest part of riding in any sort of vehicle is the general lack or disuse of seatbelts. Drivers rarely use them, passengers even more rarely. If I can, I use one in a private vehicle, but not on buses. In private cars, though, they are often lost in the seats or covered up in the back seats, so the only place I would be sure to know that I can put on a seatbelt is in the front passenger seat. I must look like a total square, but it's so ingrained in me, and for good reason. This is the main reason I don't want to ride in the front seat of a bus.

The coolest part of riding is how drivers honk at other drivers for just about anything. They honk to let them know they're passing, they honk to tell them to go, they honk when they're going around a hairpin turn so that they don't collide...but mostly they honk just to say hi.

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I know this is a long post, so I'll wrap up quickly. I worked out for reals last night for the first time since I got here. It was pretty good, listening to Muse's album Black Holes and Revelations, working up a really good sweat. I did 75 pushups over the course of it, but unfortunately I can't do more than 20 at a time. When it was time to take a shower, I had to ask my host brother Randel (I think that's how it's spelled, but I'm not sure at all) to turn on the tap, since there's been a leak in the bathroom. At the moment a family friend who is a handyman (he picked Nethelia and I up from the docks in his truck last week) is working on the pipes. On Sunday the water was turned off because of heavy rains--the watersources get too muddy, so the company turns it off. Everyone here is used to this (well, those that have running water in the first place), so we keep 5-gallon buckets around to fill up beforehand, and plenty of sterile water in waterbottles stored in the cupboards. If I had showered Sunday evening, it would have been bathing using water from the bucket.

Today is Randel's birthday. Nethelia made a cheesecake for him, and Julius is probably going to get a bottle of champagne. I asked if there was anything I could do, but Nethelia told me, "No, just have some cake and a drink of champagne." I told her I would try my hardest.