An article in last Friday’s edition of El Público, a Guadalajara daily newspaper, reported that deaths resulting from public transportation in the city decreased 33% last year from 2004. In 2004, 51 people died as a result of bus accidents and careless bus drivers, in 2005 only 34 did. The State Commission on Human Rights has issued recommendations aimed at making the bus systems more comfortable, safe, and efficient for passengers and other motorists. Ex-secretary of Urban Health and Transportation, Germán Camacho, stated, “If the body in charge of the defense of human rights gets involved in the issue of public transportation, something is seriously wrong.”
A statement that any passenger on any local bus will attest to. To say they drive like maniacs is a cliché, and only scratches the surface of the particular indifference and incompetence of a city bus driver. They frequently ignore people hailing them from a bus stop if it means that they can make the light at the intersection before it turns red, or ignore traffic lights altogether. Alternatively, drivers will allow so many passengers on the bus that it becomes difficult to breathe, and makes it nearly impossible to get off the bus. Drivers often don’t allow sufficient time for passengers to descend the bus before they start rolling again, despite signs that assure the bus can’t move until the doors are closed. They seem to delight in accelerating to ridiculous speeds, barreling down narrow neighborhood streets, only so they can slam on the brakes at the next corner, throwing as many riders off balance as possible. Additionally, they often cut off traffic, pick fights with motorists, and play games of chicken with drivers who upset them, leaving their passengers blessing themselves and hanging on for dear life. Since it simply isn’t possible that there could be so many madmen in one city, and disregard for safety is so predominate amongst bus drivers, one is left to assume that this problem has less to do with individuals than with demands and stipulations put upon them by their supervisors.
All this being said, the purpose of this observation is pay tribute to the Route 640. In a city of dangerous traffic and crazy drivers, the 640 bus is a relative beacon of safety and tranquility. First of all, there is the convenience. It travels practically right from our doorstep, winds through cute little neighborhoods, and drops us off at Centro Magno (where Noah works). From there you can ride it all the way to the neighborhoods of southeast Guadalajara, and it even passes by the neighborhood where I lived in 2000. Second, the drivers on the 640 bus seem to have a more relaxed and humanistic worldview. They generally drive carefully and slowly, and there have been a few times when we have been able to hail the bus when we weren’t standing at the designated stop, but rather approaching it (something so unheard of that we marveled over it for days the first time it happened). Finally, the 640 is almost never packed, there is plenty of room for everyone to sit comfortably and enjoy the interesting street life going by outside the window. Bless you 640!
