A predictable outcome of transportation strike in Honduras: Government decided on free market prices.

In our last article about the transportation strike, we had pointed out how the government had a better bargaining position due to the fact that the strikers were in disagreement among themselves.

Yesterday the government decided against subsidies and price regulation on taxis and chose to let the market do its magic. Bus tariffs are indeed regulated, but the taxi prices, like many other transportation fees, are going to go up, and soon. El Heraldo's latest article on the subject talks about how the "CNT" or "National Transport Council" is thinking about raising L.3.00 to inner city bus tariffs, adding one Lempira per month, for the next three months. Same thing seems to be happening on inter- city buses, raising tariffs 30%, also distributing the raise over a period of three months.

This is a huge incremental jump for regular urban commuters in Honduras! The probable average transportation budget for an regular city commuter back in late 2007 was between 7-14 Lempiras; L.3.00 per bus ride, on subsidized buses and 3.50 on non-subsidized buses, (see Heraldo publication back in Nov.2007), now the price is going to be around L. 6.00 per bus ride, making the probable transportation budget for commuters somewhere between 14-28 Lps. If we multiply this by the number of work days in a month, we are looking at a L. 280-560 monthly transportation budget, for a country whose minimum wage is around L. 2,000. per month.


The basic problem is not really government regulations, but more the way the game has changed due to global economic shifts. The fact is simple: transportation is becoming very expensive, and people in Central America in general are facing a challenge that has never before been so heavily felt. The game has changed, and so have its rules.

Mass Transportation per se has not received the same priority of investment as other sectors have, and certainly not enough to improve it in a significant, sustainable way. By improvement we look at whether it is accessible, affordable, sustainable and relevant. That said, a major underlying factor in this emerging crisis is obviously the current costs of fuel, or 'energy,' the term we have come to use to encompass so much of what ails us. Still, perhaps especially given the continuing rise is energy costs, we are really talking about priorities - are policies and decisions being considered with the next 30 days in mind, or the next thirty years? (In another blog article we will look more closely at another example of what indeed has been a spectacular investment priority, namely, global communications.)

Rather than identify true priorities, we have witnessed government and private sectors substitute more of a triage approach to motivating change. The 'priority' in making choices in recent history has been guided by the promise of short-term results, or by crisis-mode reactions to shortages and pricing fluctuations, not longer-term vision and planning, and the perseverance and patience needed to reach long-term goals.

Governments who try to subsidize petro/oil fuel are fighting an elephant with a flyswatter. If anything, government subsidies in the tranportation sector should be focused less on maintaining the current status and more on seeking renewable energy forms of transport, and more community-fluent engagement with the issues of change in their urban and rural population movement. This will take time and effort and the talents of many from different sectors, and it is worth it.

More and more, people around the world are proposing new (and even not-so-new) ideas in offering alternate, plausible solutions for creating and harnessing energy for one of it chief uses, transportation. For example, www.alfapenta.com is proposing a Metro System in Guatemala City, that runs on hydroelectric energy; gulfnews.com talks about how Qtar is already making official plans to make all of its public transportation work through solar powered buses. USAToday, published an article called "Transit systems travel 'green' track" where Charisse Jones (Author) sums up most of what the US is doing in terms of "Green Transportation Systems" in the country and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic is about to open the first phase of its Metro System.

Again, the game has changed, and one of the positive things is that green now saves green... dollars that is.

Written by JF Aguilar and EM Peck

Metro in Santo Domingo Video:


SANTO DOMINGO'S FIRST METRO RIDE!