Government’s introduction of buses in urban zones causes pandemonium on city streets

February 6, 2019
| Report Focus News

Chaotic scenes characterise the roads in urban zones as buses and and emergency taxis cause traffic jams on city streets.

Following the recent doubling of fuel prices by the government emergency taxis’ hiked their fare from $1 to $2.

In what has now been described as a knee -jerk-reaction, the government introduced buses as a cheaper alternative mode of transportation for city commuters.
However, no proper planning was put in place. With no proper bus terminals for buses to rank some streets in the central business districts have become scenes of chaos.

Report Focus spoke to some irate drivers in Bulawayo who expressed displeasure at the chaos that buses have brought on some of the streets.

“The government introduced these buses without considering where they would rank, buses used to use the Godini terminus to pick up commuters but with Godini closed we see the buses picking and dropping off commuters everywhere like the emergency taxis’ this is causing a lot of congestion on the roads.” Said a Bulawayo resident Melusi Ndlovu.

The introduction of ZUPCO buses was a welcome help to the city commuters who would have been forced to shoulder the exorbitant emergency taxi fares.

“The city council must find a way of restoring order on the streets in as much as the buses are a cheaper alternative for commuters the commotion they are causing on the city streets can not be ignored” said Polite Nkomo.

Emergency taxis drivers have had to compete for commuters with the buses and this has forced them to revert back to pricing their fares to $1.

It is still not clear wether the introduction of buses as a cheaper alternative for city commuters is a temporary or permanent measure, but urgent action needs to be taken to remedy the chaos that has ensured as a result of this.