Month: August 2009

We all know that the public transport here in Kuching is in very sad state. Seriously, I only took public transport less than 10 times in Kuching if my memory serves me right and it was years back when I was schooling and I never utilized one alone because I don’t know how it works. *LOL*

What I’m trying to highlight here are some of the safety issues of van sapu(those van operators without license but pick up passengers from bus stops to send them to their destination).

I do not use public transport(be it legal or illegal ones). What I’m going to say here are from what I encountered and my assumptions because I don’t know how these people are operating and how the users know which is the right van to board.

One afternoon, I was driving. There were 2 vans, one in front of me, one behind me. I didn’t know they were van sapu. I just drove as usual and there was a bus stop not far, the van driver in front of me had his signal on stating that he was going to make a stop at the bus stop. As you know, when people want to stop or turn into a junction, they will slow down right? And those behind will of course slow down also. I did not intend to overtake because no point at all, the other lane was occupied also, so I slowed down too.

Then I noticed the van behind me started to tailgate me upon reaching the bus stop but I didn’t care because the other lane was occupied and he should just follow whatever those in front of him were doing, slowing down.

When the first van almost came to a stop at the bus stop, I sped up slightly and swayed to the right a bit while it went into the bus stop area but guess what happened? He switched lane, this was fine, very normal if people want to go faster but he immediately took this opportunity to shove himself right in front of me and stop at the bus stop! WTF! I had to apply sudden break and luckily my speed wasn’t very fast yet. Not only that, it came to a complete halt right in front of the first van at the bus stop. During that time, the first van wasn’t in a complete halt yet. Everything happened in mere seconds so I hope you get what I’m trying to tell you hahaha…

Was so pissed! I looked at my rear view mirror and realized that both were van sapu. The first van didn’t manage to get the passenger at the bus stop which he was supposed to but was overtook by the other van sapu. What’s more?!?! The van behind was putting other road users in danger!

If it’s licensed van, then I’m sure they will not do this as people can report them for dangerous driving and if they got into accident, they will be in big trouble but majority of van sapu operators didn’t bother at all, all they care is getting as many passenger as possible in other words got more money.

So… This is one issue I notice.

The next one which got me quite puzzle and worry especially for the safety of children and women.

Since van sapu got no license, any van can emulate the other real van sapu markings. The fake van sapu will have some “passengers” on board which makes it looks like a real van sapu. Then, it stops at the bus stop to take passengers.

From what I notice, the passenger(s) will usually go up the van when the van makes a stop at the bus stop, sometimes the van is empty, sometimes with other passengers. It’s as if boarding a stranger’s car which is a very dangerous thing to do.

Isn’t this very dangerous? Those waiting for transport will think that this is a real van sapu and board it. Then later got kidnap or drove to somewhere else to be raped or robbed or both?

Since I don’t use such transport, I would like to know how you know that which van sapu is real or fake. I don’t understand how it works.

As far as I know, these real van sapu did help a lot in getting people to their destinations with our current state of public transportation. It’s is not all bad but it is illegal.

What’s your say on this issue?