Years later, I would move to America. I would depend on public transportation to get to work, school and leisure. I lived at the border between a wealthy area and modest one, lucky enough to have been assigned to the wealthier neighborhood's school system. It turns out, PT in America was not that glamorous. The fleets were nicer, but the routes and expense couldn't get me to where I WANTED to be. They were good enough to get me to where OTHERS wanted me to be.
I have since moved around and lived all over the U.S. recognizing the racial disparities in access and use of public transportation. Generally speaking, public transportation is relatively expensive in the U.S. so that people can only use it when they HAVE to use it, which means it is relegated to the use of the car-less or the guilty of driving under the influence.
Routes, perpetuate racial segregation patterns that were already a habit of our nation's cultural fabric. Public transportation is available to transport the poor labor force into wealthier neighborhoods, for only as long as they are needed. In my case, while routes operated long enough for me to work or study, I could never socialize with my work friends or school friends because routes would stop the minute business hours ended. If a friend couldn't pick me up, I was out of luck. It was as though it was clear when I went into the wealthier neighborhoods, I was only welcomed there when wealthy folks needed me there, in other words, when they could make money off of my brown body.
I have since traveled all over the world, and whether in Africa, Latin America or Europe, it is clear that PT in those regions were designed for customers to go where they need and or want to go. In the U.S. PT is designed to move an impoverished labor force. A labor force that should not expect to have leisure and not wanted to cross class and race lines. The PT footprint in the U.S. basically screams "I like you enough to let you clean my house, but don't you dare date my daughter."
I always thought it was accidental. I have recently been involved in discussions about bus routes, and the logical routes that would actually generate the most money happen to cross race and class lines, so lets just say, people would rather see the PT infrastructure in the region fail before risking racial and class contamination.
I never quite understood the motivation, until I read the Calling of Katie Mankaya and Born a Crime by Trevor Noah. They both reference at length the permit system during apartheid in South Africa. Blacks and Coloreds had to obtain permits in order to work in the Afrikaans (white) neighborhoods...and they were only allowed to work in those neighborhoods, they could never be caught socializing with residents of those neighborhoods. These workers would have to pay for this permit and if they violated their terms, could easily land in jail. In the U.S. where there is a legal framework that is different, we could never legally force people, based on their race, to geographically distinct regions. We could also not create a permit system that applies to one race and not another.
Instead, we developed a Public Transportation system based on Apartheid principles-or maybe Apartheid incorporated some of our "best practices" into their system, who knows. Nevertheless, we can legally have and enforce apartheid in the U.S. without ever violating our Constitution and legal jurisprudence by having the PT framework we currently have.
So as I travel abroad, and get into rickety vans, or fancy buses depending on my vacation budget, I thank those countries for letting me choose where I WANT to go...a liberty those without a car lack here.
For more information on this topic, check out: Transportation Nation
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