Safest Place in Tanzania

Yesterday at lunch, ML was telling us the he was surprised that Dallas didn’t have a better, more widespread public transportation system.  I asked him what they had in his home town in Tanzania, and he said that a German company had come in to the country several years ago and set up a system of public buses.  They also worked with the city to create bus-only driving lanes on the roads.  ML said the issue with this is that bus drivers don’t feel like they need to stop…for anything…stoplights, cars, or even pedestrians.  It has actually become more dangerous to walk around the streets where buses are.  Apparently, there have been incidents reported of people getting off the bus, walking around the front toward the sidewalk, and actually getting run over by the bus they just got off of.

ML said the buses also operate like taxi cabs, in that they get paid by the number of fares they pick up.  So, buses will compete to pick up passengers waiting at stops.  ML was on a bus one time that actually rammed another bus to get to a bus stop first.  He said that both buses were slamming into each other all the way down the road.  That was the last time he ever rode a bus.  I told him that didn’t seem wise, because apparently the safest place is on the bus!

They didn't introduce public transportation, but population control!