I did, after all get to where I wanted

The diablo rojo bus system is supposed to be so horrible and Panamanian voters are thought to hate it so much that they will choose politicians who promise to get rid of it. There are several problems with this calculation, starting with the fact that the politicians who make it never ride the city buses.

Several other errors along the way have to do with a miscalculation of the intelligence of a large segment of the Panamanian public. Whether you want to take my word for it or check it out for yourself, please understand that most bus riders know that they won't get something for nothing, that the cures for most of the things that are wrong with the diablo rojo system come at a cost and that the riders would pay this price.

(No special stigma should attach to members of illustrious families who believe that taking the bus -- like all other indicia of modest resources -- is prima facie proof of stupidity. They never chose to be born into an inbred retarded aristocracy.)

Then there are the "crackdowns." Officials at a state-owned bank insisted that a government loan be used exclusively to buy a brand of bus with an explosive air conditioning system and no emergency exit, and when the inevitable tragedy hit bus riders were supposed to be reassured by impunity for the corrupt bankers, the jailing of the driver and his brother and Transito operations that took many buses off the roads for minor infractions, making those that remained in service unbearably crowded.

"Look: our party made you late for work and extra uncomfortable getting there -- love us because we hate the bus drivers" has to be the dumbest pitch any PRD administration ever made. Especially so, as the bus drivers were once a key PRD constituency.

The latest miscalculation is that there are votes to be had by hiring PRD botellas to put on Transito vests, stand around looking lazy and occasionally hassle bus drivers, whose routes have been shifted around in a process that created as many inconveniences as it solved.

To get a seat on Pedregal bus I needed to take another bus down to Plaza Cinco de Mayo rather than walk three blocks to Avenida Peru as before. I left my office near Colegio Javier a little after 2 p.m., and got to where I was going in Chanis at about 4 p.m., having to do the funky sardine through the crowd standing in the aisle to get from my seat to the exit.

We need a rail or dedicated bus lane system apart from the streets that city traffic uses. It should work along two lines, one from Tocumen (including the airport) to the old city center and the other which goes from around Las Cumbres, swings out to connect with the airport and bus terminal at Albrook and ends at the same destination as the other line. The rest should be left to buses and taxis.

Oh, and the bus ownership transfer that Torrijos advocates? Speak proper English: call that a scam, not a solution.

Editor’s note. The views expressed by Eric Jackson, are of course his own, but they do bring to mind a suggestion that has worked well elsewhere. All politicians should be required to travel to work on public transit.

This would have twin benefits, after a few weeks (maybe only days) they would recognize what their constituents suffer every working day, and the lavish monthly gasoline allowance for their oversized SUVs could go back into the public purse to help pay for new buses.