transportation I: injury time

most taxis have a slogan of some kind written on the back.
this is the most appropriate one i've seen thus far :)

since childhood, my brain has been assembling a perception of what i should expect while traveling; this includes such things as the type of cars i see on the road and their frequency, the number of people inside those cars, the speed at which they're moving, the road on which they're driving, the presence of seat belts (or lack thereof), the use of headlights and horns, rules of the road and common courtesy, maneuvers that are considered safe, and the anticipated time required to reach my destination. altogether, this prior evidence is responsible for my current expectations. if everything i experience during a particular journey falls within the scope of these expectations, i am likely to feel relaxed, safe, and maybe even a little bored. but when my senses present something inconsistent with my perception of "normal," i get a wake-up call and my awareness instantly kicks in, whether as a result of being squeezed into the same row as five other adults or perhaps after witnessing a car try to overtake other vehicles around a blind curve. to a foreigner like myself, coming from a country where structure dominates and safety rules are taken seriously, transportation networks in uganda set off a wide variety of alarm bells. after a lifetime of conditioning in the developed world, it's difficult not to feel a little uneasy at times while moving around in a flimsy van stuffed beyond capacity with people, moving at high speeds, dodging countless potholes, guided by the priorities of a driver for whom passing a slow-moving vehicle is apparently more appealing than guarding the safety of himself and his passengers.

why is public transportation so dangerous in this country? for one, ugandans generally do not have a lot of money and therefore tend to take advantage of any income-generating opportunity that presents itself. operators of public transportation are no exception. a taxi in uganda, which is the most common means of transport, typically operates on a specific route making round-trips (e.g. between tororo and kampala). the driver and conductor of a taxi work together to make as much money as they can during a given day, which is obviously dependent on how many trips they can make and how many passengers they can carry. it's not surprising, then, that they pack their vehicles as full as possible and drive them as fast as possible.

the speed of a vehicle in this country is not limited by (enforcement of) the law or even its driver's sensibilities, but rather by the condition of the road on which it is moving. as much as people complain about poorly maintained roads in this country, those potholes provide a natural limit to the speed at which vehicles can move. (un)fortunately, the road between my site and kampala has been greatly improved and, for the time being, resembles a decently maintained two-lane road in any developed country. the problem is that this two-lane road is shared not only by local traffic, but by literally ALL of the traffic that needs to move between the kenyan port city of mombasa and kampala, uganda. this includes tankers, tractor-trailers, taxis, buses, sugar-cane trucks, motorcycles, bicycles, private vehicles and even the president's motorcade. as you can easily imagine, these vehicles naturally move at a wide variety of speeds and frequently need to overtake each other (as often on hills and around corners as on long straight-aways). on occasion a taxi driver may encounter a police checkpoint and slow down, perhaps even buckling his seat belt. but as soon as the checkpoint is passed, his foot again gets heavy on the accelerator and he tosses the seat belt aside.

i find it bewildering that the very same drivers who show absolutely no patience while driving on the road will wait as long as it takes to (over)fill their taxi before leaving or will make countless inexplicable stops along the way. you can imagine how frustrating it is at times to be a passenger in such a system; and when all the taxis look essentially the same, choosing one is a gamble. in most cases, i (along with most people in uganda) choose to take the first vehicle i find moving in my direction. the only time i refuse a ride is if the vehicle is already full and there's no way i can physically fit my 6'5" frame inside. otherwise, i feel compelled to go; there is no way of knowing when another opportunity may come along and my culturally instilled time consciousness says "if you can go now, why wait?" it would be nice to screen taxis beforehand, to know how mechanically sound the vehicle is and how safety (un)conscious the driver may be, but there's unfortunately no way. if you've gotta go, you've gotta go!