Precious Ramotswe will need an economics degree to solve the Mystery of the Missing Jitneys
by James A. Bacon
The other day, I was watching HBO’s “The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency” whose main character, Precious Ramotswe, solves mysteries set in Gabarone, the capital of Botswana. The characters are delightful and the story lines entertaining, but, wonk that I am, I began wondering about incidental things such as, how did a once-impoverished, land-locked African country become so prosperous, and how did Grace Makutksi, the Watson to Ramotswe’s Holmes, come to ride to work in a large, comfortable, air-conditioned van?
Since independence, Botswana has vaulted from one of the poorest countries in the world into the ranks of middle-income nations, a rare feat in Africa. A full explanation is beyond the scope of this blog post, but suffice it to say, Botswana has nurtured its democratic institutions and maintained the freest economy on the African continent, ranking No. 40 (moderately free) in the Index of World Economic Freedom. Which brings us to the issue of public transportation. It appears that Botswana encourages the use of jitneys: vans that offer unscheduled but regular service along a mostly fixed route.
Now, I have no way of knowing the extent to which Botswana regulates its jitneys, but clearly it has not banned the entire category of transportation as the United States has nearly done. As a consequence, poor Batswanan (as one refers to the inhabitants of Botswana in the plural) have a transportation option not available to poor Americans in any but a handful of U.S. cities.
The American political class, ever confident in its ability to regulate the daily affairs of lesser mortals, has created monopolies and/or cartels in taxicab and bus service that have effectively eliminated jitneys as a shared-vehicle transportation mode. Espying a “market failure” — transportation remains exceedingly expensive for poor Americans — lovers of big-government solutions then call for subsidies to cover money-losing bus or mass-transit services. As the world hurtles ever closer to Boomergeddon, however, subsidies for money-losing transit modes is not a fiscally sustainable strategy over the long run.
That’s why a case studying appearing in a recent report, “Enterprise Programs: Freeing Entrepreneurs to Provide Essential Services for the Poor,” is so timely. Jennifer Dirmeyer, a professor at Virginia’s own Hampden-Sydney College, makes the case for resurrecting jitneys in the U.S. Dirmeyer writes:
Low-income individuals make up the largest percentage of bus riders and the second largest percentage of taxi riders. This points to the potential for a welfare-enhancing travel alternative that is slightly more expensive than a bus fare yet more “convenient.” However, choosing between taking a taxi and a bus may be somewhat like choosing between a filet mignon and a spam sandwich. …
Where jitney services have operated, either legally or illegally, consumer-reported benefits fall into three categories: Jitneys are faster than buses, save walking and waiting time, and offer better quality service. On the supply side, jitneys are better able to adjust to changing transportation patterns, respond to the differences in peak and off-peak demand, and they provide moderately more convenient services such as making small detours off route for a lower price than a taxi. These characteristic features explain the persistent popularity of jitney services in urban environments, even where illegal.
Dirmeyer advocates significant deregulation of taxicabs and jitneys, even to the extent of allowing them to pick up passengers at bus stops. That would create a problem, she acknowledges — it would divert passengers who otherwise would ride buses. Then transit companies, which bear the cost of maintaining the routes and stops, would be put at a competitive disadvantage. She believes that the public benefit is greater than the revenue lost to government enterprises, although the point is probably impossible to prove or disprove.
I suspect that jitneys can flourish even without free-riding on the investment made by transit companies. People can already download smart-phone apps to find other car poolers. Thus, the means already exists for riders to communicate with jitney operators. Who needs to raid bus stops? Indeed, the inherent flexibility of smart phone-enabled jitneys could revolutionize the shared transportation industry. Taxicabs and transit companies will fight to preserve the status quo but riders, poor riders especially, could be big winners in a world where jitneys were free to operate. Taxpayers could be winners, too, if free jitneys spelled the end to mass transit monopolies and taxpayer subsidies without end.
Update: Reader “Darrell” sends a link to the following story, “Carpooling a Click away with Online Ride Sharing” about two Seattle start-ups that are connecting riders with car pools.
