The following was written [in April, 1998]  as an article for the UTU/TUT Local 23 newsletter.

I sent it out to the Corbett Village haitian mailing list as an afterthought, as it is not nearly as high minded as the discussions that take place there.

Much to my surprise, I got numerous direct responses from people on the Haitian mailing list who enjoyed reading it, and had their own comments about Haitian road culture.

As I've just returned from another visit to Haiti, my current favorite place to visit, and I am required to produce a newsletter article post haste, I would like to talk a little bit about transportation in Haiti.

Now, whenever I travel I like to take the local public transportation. [or mass transportation, as it is all privately owned in Haiti] This has something to do with our being bus drivers, but I also like to stay in touch with regular folks. Being with regular folks in strange countries like Haiti can be an interesting experience.

The Capital of Haiti, Port au Prince [once renamed Port Repulicain during the French Revolution but it didn't stick] is exceptionally crowded and the basic infrastructure [like roads] has been fairly well wrecked by years of mis-government.

I always start off staying in an Orphanage and guest house named St Josephs home for boys. This is some miles up the hill from centreville on avenue Delmas. About a half a mile further up the hill from avenue Delmas 91 is the bus stop section of Petionville. From there one can go down the hill either on Delmas or Rue Panamerican [it becomes Rue John Brown in Port au Prince proper. I love travelling on a street named for the abolitionist John Brown.]

It appears that hundreds of thousands of people every day take the public transit up and down the hill. I would guess that one third of all the vehicles on Delmas have a 'taxi' license plate, with most of these actually performing 'tap-tap' service.

The normal tap-tap fare from downtown PauP [called 'centre ville'] up the hill is 2 1/2 gourdes [about 15 US cents]. Some routes have a 2 gourde fare, but the Delmas and John Brown routes are 2 1/2 gou.

As the tap tap routes all operate on a 'courtesy stop' basis the busy areas are jammed with pulled over tap-taps.

The most common image of the tap-tap is a Japanese pickup truck with seats in the back and a camper shell elevated about two feet above the edge of the bed. Some older ones have custom made roofs but the most usual practice today is a fiberglass US style shell with a welded rebar spacer holding it up an extra two feet. Many of the tap-tap have a step with additional seats hanging over the back of the pickup bed.

Many of the tap-tap these days are Japanese transit vans instead of converted pickups. Most of these were originally 10 seaters or so, but 15 to 20 persons will cram in during rush hour. These vehicles are front engined diesel trucks with passenger van bodies on them. The Japanese ship these all over the world. Daihatsu are the most popular make on the Paup/Petionville run; they are simple, basic trucks. Some newer vehicles, more civilian in style, also exist, Nissan and Toyota and Kia make nice ones.

Since my visit last year a new type of service has started. This is the express route, which loads up at the top or bottom of the hill and normally doesn't make pickups along the way. The fare for this 'speed taxi' style of trip is 10 gou during the peaks. They frequently charge only 5 gou during the middle of the day. These express runs are usually in a newer, more comfortable vehicle and they usually are not crammed to the same extent as the normal 2 1/2 gou run. This is not, however, guaranteed. One of my most comfortable rides only cost 2 1/2 gourdes.

Sitting inside a tap-tap, riding without any local friends along can be interesting. Usually people are very quiet, no conversation. It is rather unusual for a foriegner to take the local public transit so occasionally quiet words will be exchanged about the spectacle of a blan packed into the van [or truck].

This is normal, and to be expected in adventure touring. Oh. Children will of course stare shamelessly. They aren't ashamed to stare, so it is perfectly ok to stare back.

Some quite interesting cultural values can be gleaned in this type of elbow to elbow acculturation. For instance, the appropriate call from the street to a taxi is not 'Hey!', is is 'psst' and it is heard. The request for the vehicle to stop and to alight is 'Merci chouffer'. My first few days back driving in Santa Cruz were quite a shock after getting accustomed to the quiet politeness of Haitians.

The fare for the tap-tap is paid after you alight. Everyone goes up to the driver or controller after the vehicle has stopped and queues to pay their 2 1/2 gou [or 5 or 10 or whatever]. Walking off without paying would never occur to anyone it seems. This, from people whom we are repeatedly told are the poorest in the Americas.

One interesting thing is that different areas have different vehicular cultures. The tap-tap from centre ville to Carrefour [Kafou in Kreyol] usually have custom made bodies with wild paint jobs. The builder of the body and the painter will have their name written on the back. These are works of art and it is a shame that they don't run on my routes.

The runs up the hill past Petionville into the mountain frequently are in Peugeot station wagons. This is a nice touch from earlier days and reminds me of the African speed taxi. The newer vehicles on this run are nice Asian transit vans. Converted pickups don't make it on this trip.

Delmas mostly has pickups and Daihatsu, while Panamerican/John Brown is dominated by transit vans, either Daihatsu at 2 1/2 gou or Nissan/Kia/Toyo fancy vans at 5 to 10 gou.

Highway busses have differing cultures as well. The long line busses up the coast to Cap Haitien are all of the US school bus type, usually on International chassis. The southbound busses usually have a separate truck cab with a passenger body built behind that. These can be full size 10 ton US chassis or middling 5 ton Asian chassis.

The highway bus to St Marc, the first city up the coast just past Club Med, are either Mazda or Hyundai 25 seaters. I learned quite quickly to take a Hyundai whenever possible. The Mazda has bench seats, originally intended to take 4 across. 5 are packed in. The Hyundai has 4 separate seats and more leg room between the seats. My American legs are too long to be crammed into a Mazda seat. If you get there early you can ask the 'controller' for the front passenger seat. I did this, and getting that seat is worth waiting for the second bus in line to fill up. The controller, by the way, is responsible for loading the bus and collecting fares. In Africa he is called the 'tout' as the job involves shouting out the destination and fare, altho these are almost always obvious.

My Hyundai had air conditioning. This was an unusual luxury in a Haitian bus. I always tell the chouffer 'mwen chouffer bis en amerika'. This starts nice discussions in our shared pidgin road zen.

All of the north americans whom I talked to hated Haitian driving, and Haitian drivers. None of them had ever been chouffers, however. I assert that Haitians are far better drivers than Americans. What confuses north americans is that lane control is replaced with collision avoidance. There are no lanes, so the skill of lane control is useless, even counter productive.

One resident blan complained that the Haitian bus drivers always run him off the road. Well, I've been sitting in the right front seat of that bus and seen foreigners getting passed on the highway. Collision avoidance means getting out of the freaking way! They won't get out of the way! They act like it's the Pasadena freeway and they aren't going to give a goddam inch.

Just like americans here, now that I think about it.

Oh my, what a wonderful post you made about transport in Haiti to Bob Corbett's list. Thank you so much!

I spent a month in Haiti, mostly in the countryside, but with a few days at St. Joseph's on each end of the trip. I observed what you so delightfully put into words. Yes, it was "wild" driving going on all about me (I rode tap-taps, mostly and had a few "car" rides, too), but so skilled. I marveled at the undocumented ettiquette that ruled the roads, enjoyed watching people make left turns on and off of Delmas. Regularly in the small town in which I live I must make a particularly annoying left turn onto a four-lane street. My only recourse is to sit for however long it takes for a gap in the traffic to open, or to give up, turn right and go around the block. If I were in Port-au-Prince, I'd make the turn by nudging my nose into the traffic. 2 vehicles would pass by and the next one would stop.

I was also impressed by the "safe clearance" distances--inches! But always maintained. (Well, not always, I suppose. I am waxing a bit romantic here.)

I also marveled at the skill of the bus (van..."yol") driver who drove me to Hinche. I'm sure you can imagine the road: a hundred yards smooth, then deep ruts, then ten yards clear sailing, then a huge rock, all interspersed with pedestrians and donkeys. That driver couldn't have worked his legs more if he were on a bicycle! He shifted up and down to get maximum speed on the slightest straightaway and to slow to within the tolerance of his suspension for the obstacles. He "drove" every inch of the way!

I live in a small town in Idaho now, but lived 7 years in Detroit where artful driving was religion. Guess that's where my appreciation comes from.

Thanks again for your post. Loved it.

Nancy Casey
www.cs.uidaho.edu/~casey931
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name: transport.html
created on 29 April 1998,
modified: