Cargando...In 2016, one of the installments of the popular Fast and Furious saga was filmed on the streets of Havana. Much has changed since then, and our roads and avenues are no longer the same—not only because of the well-known deterioration, but also due to the near absence of state-run passenger transport and the exponential growth of private vehicles, especially motorcycles and electric tricycles.
Yet it seems that every day we witness the Cuban version of that American movie: traffic indiscipline, drivers’ lack of courtesy toward pedestrians, rising accident rates, and not a few frauds committed by those behind the wheel—all growing before our eyes. And most dangerously, not everything can be solved with fines.
The proliferation of electric transport, both collective and private, has given many people the chance to arrive on time at various places at prices less exorbitant than those charged by gasoline or diesel taxi drivers. But their lower speed (between 20 and 30 km/h) makes them suitable only for occasional use in fast lanes, not permanent circulation. This often leads to collisions when overtaking, some of them very serious.
There are still those who ride these motorcycles without helmets, disregard street directions, forget to use turn signals when turning or pulling over for passengers, and ignore traffic lights as if they had some kind of license to do so. Hence the question that arises when we see this: who gave these people their driver’s license?
Stopping at pedestrian crossings and yielding the right of way to someone about to cross when we are halted at a corner with a STOP sign are just two examples of the courtesy once always shown to pedestrians, which today seems lost amid the desperation of improvised drivers.
Nor is it a minor issue that rental cars continue to cut across lanes from left to right and vice versa in search of passengers on sidewalks. Given the critical transportation situation, people climb into anything to reach their destination. That is why the call is not to imitate the movie mentioned above, because being fast and furious only leads to lamentations, injuries, or—most painfully—death.
Acerca del autor
Máster en Ciencias de la Comunicación. Director del Periódico Trabajadores desde el 1 de julio del 2024. Editor-jefe de la Redacción Deportiva desde 2007. Ha participado en coberturas periodísticas de Juegos Centroamericanos y del Caribe, Juegos Panamericanos, Juegos Olímpicos, Copa Intercontinental de Béisbol, Clásico Mundial de Béisbol, Campeonatos Mundiales de Judo, entre otras. Profesor del Instituto Internacional de Periodismo José Martí, en La Habana, Cuba.
