A common historical thread of South African urban life is conflict related to public transportation. In the 1940s Alexandra residents boycotted buses because they raised fares to an untenable level. Today, taxi and bus drivers strike because of low wages, or, in the case of taxi drivers, fears of replacement by new, more centralized public transportation schemes, BRT or bus rapid transit. Something strikes me as wrong here. When taxi and bus drivers strike, it’s the people who use these modes of transportation who are left scrambling for ways to get to work. I want to be on the side of the workers, but it seems to me like the masses just trying to get a day’s wage are the ones getting screwed the most. And it’s not just strikes. Unsafe drivers are an all-too-common complaint about taxi drivers in particular.

The New York Times’ “Freakonomics” blog links to a study by James Habyarimana and William Jack of the Center for Global Development on how safety is improving on bus advertisement at a time in Kenya:

Habyarimana and Jack report the results of a fascinating field experiment they carried out, putting posters in over 1,000 randomly chosen Kenyan mini-buses. The posters told passengers to speak up if the driver drove dangerously.

And it really seems to have worked. Using data on insurance claims, the authors find that the buses that got these posters saw large declines in crashes relative to the control group, and the accident reduction appears to persist, as long as the signs remain posted.

People who use public transport in South Africa will need to find effective mechanisms to express their voice as these conflicts continue and likely heighten as transportation infrastructure developments continue in the lead-up to the World Cup. As the title of Steven Levitt’s post suggests,”Bus-riders of the world unite!”