Microbus outside of Ticuantepe
Living near the Carretera Ticuantepe (Ticuantepe Highway) for over a month, I had the opportunity to observe and ride quite a few microbuses – large vans (usually Toyota Hiaces, sometimes Nissan Urvans) with about sixteen seats. Ferrying commuters between Managua and the outlying towns of San Marcos, La Concepcion, and Jinotepe (see the map I made), in peak hours they would pass the driveway to my house as often as every two minutes. The national government subsidizes fuel for the microbuses in order to keep fares low; riding the ten miles from La Gloria in Ticuantepe to Metrocentro in Managua cost 10 Cordobas (about 50¢).
Their high frequency and low cost made these vehicles my first choice for travel into Managua. The artificially low fares, however, contributed to overcrowding. Weekday mornings, it was nearly impossible to get a seat when boarding at Ticuantepe, since they tended to be occupied by passengers who had boarded at earlier stops. So I would have to stand until enough passengers exited, which usually occurred at the KM 14 roundabout, the intersection with the Carretera Masaya where people transferred to Granada-bound buses. The standing was bearable in microbuses with raised tops, but on the many with normal, low roofs, my neck and back would feel pretty strained after thirty minutes of hunching over in Managua traffic.
The morning of my final exam at the Spanish school was particularly bad. As I waited on side of the Carretera, the microbuses I tried to wave down kept passing me by. For the driver or conductor to pass up an extra fare, these microbuses have to be incredibly full (as many as 26 people in a vehicle with 16 seats), so I knew it was a bad sign that multiple ones had passed me by. One finally stopped for me, and it was so full that I had to hang out the open door with a few other people as it sped off.
Rounding one of the bends in the highway, we came to a sudden stop. Traffic was at a dead standstill way before the KM 14 roundabout, and the driver could only assume that a crash was blocking traffic. Nicaraguan law prohibits moving vehicles involved in a crash until after the police have written a report, and they can often take hours to arrive, so the traffic jam was likely to last for quite some time. Consequently, our driver pulled a U-turn on the highway, heading back to one of the narrow, bumpy dirt driveways that we had passed, and that presumably offered some sort of access to the Carretera Masaya.
A number of other microbus, car, and bus drivers had the same idea. Trying to negotiate his way around a number of giant buses and potholes on the too-narrow road, the driver soon decided that this endeavor would take far too long. He decided another U-turn was in order, which prompted one or two annoyed passengers to mutter “¿Qué está haciendo?” The conductor hopped out to coordinate the seven point turn, constrained by a barbed wire fence, a cinder block wall, and a number of other impatient drivers. Our driver then headed back toward Ticuantepe and tried a different bumpy dirt road. This one was successful, and we eventually made it to the Carretera Masaya and into Managua. I arrived for my exam twenty minutes late. My professor, who relied on microbuses for her commute, also had to wait longer than usual to board a microbus (since so many were stuck in the jam or in hapless detour attempts) and to make it into town, so she was thirty minutes late.… Read the rest
Read Full Post | February 08 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | 1 Comment » |
The microbus conductors, called buseros, are responsible for collecting fares, coordinating stops with the driver, and convincing passengers to board their microbus. To do the latter, they ride with their head and one arm out the window of the sliding side door, shouting and pointing to indicate their destination:
Busero [Points to the right to indicate the microbus will turn at KM 14]: Jinotepe Ticuantepe La Concha San Marcos Jinotepe…! (try saying that three times fast)
People waiting at bus stop [Shake heads]
Busero [Singles out one potential passenger]: Jinotepe Jinotepe!
Person who has been singled out [Shakes head again]
Busero [Turns his palm up and shrugs the shoulder that is out the window]: A donde va? (Where are you going?)
Person who has been singled out: Masaya
Busero [Looks condescendingly at person who has been singled out, as if to ask "What reason could you have for going to Masaya instead of Jinotepe?" Instead says to driver]: Dale! (Hit it!)
Buseros see themselves as the link between the driver and the passengers:
Busero [to passengers]: Quien va al Ministerio? (Who’s going to the Ministry of Works?)
Passenger [to busero]: Ministerio!
Busero [to driver]: Ministerio!
[Driver stops in front of the Ministry of Works]
Busero [to driver]: Suave, suave. (Smooth, smooth)
[Driver begins to creep forward even though passengers are still alighting]
Busero [to driver]: Suave! Te voy a avisar! (Slow down! I’ll let you know when we can leave!)
[Passengers finish alighting, a couple more come on]
Busero [to driver]: Dale! (Hit it!)
Busero [to passengers]: Quien va a La Colonia? [after waiting a second, to driver]: Nadie para La Colonia. (Nobody for La Colonia)
One of the buseros I rode and talked with a couple of times was named Cristian, a 19 year old student who wants to study systems engineering. He usually worked in an internet cafe in Jinotepe and had just started working as a busero for a family friend. The friend owns five microbuses and is part of a collective with about thirty vehicles. Cristian told me that the collective owners want to buy more vehicles to take advantage of the high demand, but affording the new Toyota Hiaces is difficult. While owners of larger buses have an abundant supply of affordable used vehicles (i.e. old school buses from the United States), practically all of the minibuses in Nicaragua are bought new from Casa Pellas (the nation’s Toyota distributor and a member of the massive Grupo Pellas conglomerate).… Read the rest
Read Full Post | February 08 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |
I had the opportunity to view some of the bid documents and specifications for this bus acquisition in my meeting at IRTRAMMA. They were quite technical (e.g. finite element analysis of different bus components), and it seems like the government is satisfied that DINA, a Mexican manufacturer, will meet their requirements. Translated from “Buses nuevos vendrán en cinco meses,” published February 3rd on El 19 Digital, an online news source for President Ortega’s government:
By the middle of this year the first lot of buses coming from Mexico will enter the country, and by next October it is expected that all of the 350 units will be circulating in the capital to benefit some 350,000 Nicaraguans. The announcement was made by the director of Managua’s Municipal Transport Regulator (IRTRAMMA), comrade Francisco Alvarado, after signing the manufacturing contract with Mr. Martín Meléndez, representative of the Mexican company DINA Trucks Ltd.
These buses will have a capacity for 70 people (40 seated) and will be acquired by different urban transport cooperatives of the capital, whose representatives seemed satisfied with the entire bidding process, which concluded this Thursday with the signing of a contract equivalent to approximately $24 million, money financed by the Central American Bank of Economic Integration (BCIE) and managed by the government of President Daniel Ortega Saavedra.
“For DINA Trucks and for Mexico as a whole it is a pride to participate in this purchase of buses for the people of Nicaragua,” said Meléndez, the representative of the Mexican company.
He said that these new buses will be fabricated with the climactic and topographic conditions of Nicaragua in mind and “that all the citizens of Managua and Nicaragua should have the confidence that they can count on buses of the first world, of extraordinary quality, and that they will benefit.” Ten percent of all of the buses will be manufactured with a system of special lifts for people who use wheelchairs.
“By the end of this year Managua will totally transform its fleet and with that its model of municipal transit,” assured Alvarado.
Luis Jiménez, a bus owner, said that improving and transforming the system of buses in Managua could only happen under the direction of a Sandinista Government.
“The strength which the revolutionary government has used in these negotiations is excellent. We have ordered a bus that will have excellent technical features and at the right price, and that will benefit the people foremost,” said Jiménez.
The political overtones of this article make more sense when one considers that Nicaragua’s next presidential elections are scheduled for November. With an election looming, I am confident that most or all of the buses will actually be operating by October. This means the demand for US school buses in Nicaragua will have declined significantly by then. It also means that IRTRAMMA should consider changing its logo, which currently features a yellow school bus complete with a stop sign:
Read Full Post | February 08 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport and Transportation News | No Comments » |
After my excellent meeting with the General Director of Managua’s Transport Regulatory Agency, he graciously arranged for me to visit the facilities of Alba Transport (shared with Alba Equipment), where the city’s old buses amarillos (yellow buses) were being decommissioned. Here’s what opposition newspaper El Nuevo Diario had to say about the Alba companies and a reporter’s attempt to investigate Alba Transport:
The private firm doing business as Alba of Nicaragua, Ltd., Albanisa, tied to the presidential family, constitutes only the name and face of an emporium of businesses that offer all type of services, making itself into a new economic power in the country…The mother company or head of the octopus was formed in 2007 with the oversight of President Daniel Ortega and his Venezuelan partner and provider, Hugo Chávez…But from it also extend Alba Caruna, Alba Equipment, Alba Security, Alba Generation, Alba Ports, Alba Deposits, Alba Wind Power, Alba Food, Alba Transport, Alba Tenosa, and “at least two more which are being formed,” indicated informants.
El Nuevo Diario arrived at the facilities of Alba Equipment…and as we approached, the guards of Alba Security came out to meet us, and after making phone calls and making us uncomfortable, indicated that we could not wander around the site. Right there, in the gates of the two “Little Albas [Transport and Equipment],” we asked if [Alba Transport's Director Freddy] Acevedo could be found, but the guards, now warned by the gray-haired man, did not respond to more questions and asked us to leave “to avoid problems.”…To these facilities were brought the 130 buses donated by the Russian Federation to Alba-Caruna, to open the windows, put in radiators, and change the brake system, i.e. adjust them to the climate and needs of the country.
When I arrived at the front gate, I was also greeted with a bit of suspicion by the Alba Security guards. They took a bit to confirm my identity (a Japanese reporter writing for a US school bus magazine – I highlighted my Japanese heritage rather than my “Yankee imperialist” heritage for the Sandinistas) and that I had an appointment with Director Acevedo. In the meantime, I saw a couple of buses skidding around in the compound, presumably testing their newly acclimatized brakes.
Director Acevedo gave me a great tour of the Alba Transport facility. Sitting in a lot were 104 dilapidated former US school buses, between 20 and 30 years old, waiting to be disassembled. Oil and other contaminants were drained in a process authorized by the national environmental oversight agency, then the buses were scrapped. I saw a couple of 18-wheelers with FSLN (governing Sandinista party) flags on the dashboard hauling away the scrap metal during my visit. There were also a few buses painted bright pink, which Director Acevedo said were used for entertaining children.
I also enjoyed seeing the other side of the equation, brand new Kurgansky Avtobusny Zavod buses that had just arrived from Russia. Alba Transport had handed the first batch of these buses over to operators but quickly realized that modifications were necessary:
The buses were delivered to seven of the thirty-six routes of urban collective transit, the majority of which are affiliated with the governing party, at a cost of $25,000 per bus.
… Read the rest
Read Full Post | February 08 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | 1 Comment » |
Nicaragua Transit Diagram
In comparison to the one I made for Belize, the transit diagram I made for Nicaragua is not based as heavily on the iconic London Underground diagram. I am being more careful about using the word diagram instead of map, since in these images I aimed for representational clarity rather than geographical accuracy. I have been working on this diagram over the course of two months; a number of features made it more of a challenge to create than my first. Including both English and Spanish introduced both translation and layout concerns. I tried to make the diagram colorblind accessible by coding routes with two-letter service designations. This coding scheme served additionally to indicate that certain cities were the final stop for at least some of the buses running along a given route. I also included an inset to show local bus routes connecting Managua’s main terminals.
Download a high quality PDF here.
The image below shows the routes I traveled during my time in Nicaragua.
Nicaragua Transit Diagram with the routes I traveled shown as dashed lines
… Read the rest
Read Full Post | January 28 2011 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | 1 Comment » |
I enjoyed the Taiwanese Embassy-sponsored jazz concert so much that I decided to attend another diplomatically arranged musical event. One Friday edition of La Prensa explained the background of the giant cube-like structure I had seen being constructed at the Santo Domingo Mall on my commute into Spanish classes. The German Embassy was sponsoring an Electronica Bonanza, “a new dimension of electronic concert in which the music and images envelop the sensory atmosphere.”
While the German DJs and various random images projected on the structure’s walls were enjoyable, I’m not sure they reached a new dimension. I enjoyed the Nicaraguan band Momotombo, complete with marimba, tuba, trombone, and guitars, the best. Pictures and video from the concert are here.… Read the rest
Read Full Post | January 28 2011 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
I rode just over one hundred different vehicles during my time in Nicaragua. I spent a total of 33 hours in 42 different former school buses, traveling 587 miles. I also rode 273 miles over 15 hours in 22 different microbuses. Compared to Belize, the average age of buses in Nicaragua was more difficult to determine, since fewer still had the manufacturer’s registration plate affixed to the headboard. The buses in Nicaragua, however, were much more diverse than the almost exclusively school bus based fleet in Belize. On the streets of Managua, I saw buses from the United States, Russia, Mexico, Brazil, and Japan.… Read the rest
Read Full Post | December 27 2010 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
The Río San Juan is one of Nicaragua’s national treasures. Running from the Lake of Nicaragua east to the Caribbean Sea, the river is home to abundant wildlife (including freshwater sharks) and relatively little development. Most Nicaraguans, however, appreciate it not for the natural habitat it provides, but for historical and political reasons.
The river, winding its way through the jungle, has long been a geopolitical hotspot. In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, pirates (including Henry Morgan) sailed up it to attack Spanish settlements along the Lake of Nicaragua, such as Granada. The Spanish responded by constructing a line of defenses, including El Castillo. In the 19th Century, many of the 49ers steamed up the river, journeyed overland thirty miles from the Lake of Nicaragua, then boarded a California-bound steamer at the Pacific coast. The United States government signed a number of treaties regarding an interoceanic canal that would use the Río San Juan: first, to build a canal, then, after completing the Panama Canal in 1914, to prevent other nations from building a competing one.
The Río San Juan also comprises a long section of the border between Nicaragua and Costa Rica. Unlike the vast majority of other riparian borders around the world, the border is not in the middle of the river, but on one bank. According to nineteenth century treaties, the entire Río San Juan is in Nicaraguan territory, but Costa Rica may use it to convey “objects” of trade. This uncommon border arrangement has led not only to a prevalence of Nicaraguan bumper stickers and t-shirts reading “The Río San Juan is 100% Nicaraguan,” but also to a long series of diplomatic spats (including one over whether tourists could be considered “objects” if they were not about to be sold as slaves).
I was aware of the touchy border situation when I visited San Carlos and took a ferry to El Castillo. I was a bit surprised by an immigration official’s stern warning that I should have my passport with me to take the ferry to the town of El Castillo. He must have known about the national government’s plans for that day. President Daniel Ortega, via satellite video link, ordered an official stationed on a barge in the river to start a controversial dredging operation. His rationale for the project is improving navigability the river for barge traffic; Costa Ricans think that the dredging’s actual goal is rerouting the river for a land grab. The dredging operation and an anti-drug trafficking operation quickly turned into an “invasion of Costa Rica.” The Nicaraguan commander reportedly blamed Google maps, which in turned blamed the US Department of State. Costa Rica cried foul, appealing for help from the Organization of American States. Nicaragua responded with this page and a booklet – The Truths Costa Rica Hides.
So, in short, if Costa Rica had an army, Google Maps would have started a war, and I would have been in the middle of it.
Read Full Post | December 27 2010 | School Bus Migrations | 2 Comments » |
I had the opportunity to meet with the General Director of Managua’s Transport Regulatory Agency (Instituto Regulador de Transporte del Municipio de Managua). He graciously shared a number of interesting facts about their work and gave me some great maps about land use, bus routes, and transit planning in the city.
In the Managua, there are approximately 800 local buses that run on 34 different routes, with 855,000 unlinked boardings daily. The agency’s ridership statistics come from BEA infrared passenger counters installed at the entrance and exit of each bus. Initially, convincing the bus owner cooperatives to allow the installation of these bars was difficult; the owners soon realized, however, that passenger counts would allow them to determine how much fare revenue the drivers were filching (it turned out to be an average of 40%).
A few years ago, President Daniel Ortega announced his Modernization Plan for Urban Transport in Managua. Since then, hundreds of buses amarillos (“yellow buses,” as Nicaraguans call the former school buses) have been replaced, mostly by new 28-seat Kurgansky Avtobusny Zavod (Kavz) buses donated by Russia. These buses, though they are more comfortable for passengers and less polluting for the environment, have had a number of “acclimitization” problems (including with bearings, lubrication, and brakes). Nonetheless, the agency is planning to order 250 additional 40-seat Kavz buses, as well as 300 more buses from Mexico, to arrive by March. I especially enjoyed in looking over a report of specifications and finite-element analysis of these new buses; it was a definite highlight to be sitting with Managua’s head transit planner (and an automotive engineer by training) discussing, in his words, “the design of the perfect bus.”
IRTRAMMA’s long term plans are also interesting. After replacing all of the old school buses, by June 2011, according to plans, they will start implementing a bus rapid transit system tentatively named Metrovia. The agency is in the process of analyzing ridership data from the onboard passenger counters, and they plan to consolidate the thirty-four currently operating routes into eighteen BRT trunk lines and feeders. The Director stressed that they were attempting to optimize these new routes by using a scientific, data-driven approach.
Overall, IRTRAMMA’s goal is to facilitate efficient, safe, comfortable, and economical transport service in Managua. Groups like the BRU in Los Angeles or TRU in Boston might find this last priority interesting; the director explicitly stated that affordability, “to favor the people with the fewest resources in society,” was at the top of his agency’s political agenda.
A couple of years ago, the government proposed raising the bus fare from 13¢ to 15¢, sparking disruptive student strikes that eventually convinced the government to forgo the fare increase. Maintaining affordability while modernizing the fleet and improving bus rights of way will, in the Director’s words, require a “step by step” implementation over a number of years. Aid from other countries will also help (more on that here).… Read the rest
Read Full Post | December 24 2010 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | 1 Comment » |
After the tranquility of Ometepe, San Juan del Sur was a big change. A major stop on the Gringo Trail, the surf town recently finished hosting the crew of Survivor: Nicaragua. In my two days there, I was able to steer clear of most of the cruise ship buses, etc., and I managed to meet some great locals and enjoy my seaside respite from Managua.
UPDATED: I should note that picking up the baby sea turtles was done at the instruction of the park rangers. Because sea turtle gender is determined by the temperature during its incubation, and because this year has been so hot, park rangers harvested a number of eggs and allowed them to incubate in cool places to maintain a gender balance in the hatchlings. They gave us a basket of newly hatched turtles to take to the beach and place on the sand.
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… Read the rest
Read Full Post | December 20 2010 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
The former school buses on Ometepe were quite durable. I talked with one of the island’s first bus owners, and she told me about how, despite the island’s rough roads and lack of any garages (meaning the buses have to take the ferry to the departmental seat of Rivas for maintenance), the buses hold up pretty well. After completing a paving project between the port towns of Moyogalpa and Altagracia, the government is now slowly proceeding to pave the road out to the town where I stayed, Mérida. I unexpectedly got the chance to help out with this construction work.
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… Read the rest
Read Full Post | December 20 2010 | School Bus Migrations and Transport | No Comments » |
Ometepe, recently designated as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, is an island formed by two volcanoes in the Lake of Nicaragua. I enjoyed my two days there climbing (the inactive) volcano and biking/hiking to a nice waterfall. The island’s quiet, relaxed vibe made it one of my favorite places in Nicaragua. The richness of Ometepe’s volcanic soil makes for famous rice and beans, and the gallopinto I had there did not disappoint.
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… Read the rest
Read Full Post | December 20 2010 | School Bus Migrations | No Comments » |
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