WILLEMSTAD - In the more remote parts of Curaçao you see that people threaten to drop out of the labor market, because they take too long to get to work or because the transport is too unreliable, or because they spend too much of their money.
This is the conclusion of TNO researcher Marieke van der Tuin. On behalf of TNO Netherlands, she conducts research on mobility poverty in Curaçao. This form of poverty arises when groups of people have limited access to means of transport and mobility facilities.
TNO says that the term can also be interpreted more broadly. It also touches on accessibility poverty: how much effort do you have to make to reach basic facilities such as a supermarket? And affordability of transport: what percentage of your income should you spend on mobility? In addition, people can also be limited in their mobility due to health problems or a language impediment.
“In addition to traditional indicators such as travel distance and time, we also looked at the accessibility of work and basic facilities such as schools, and the impact on population groups,” says Van der Tuin.
“Retiring from work is often not an option, forcing people to incur high costs so that their financial situation deteriorates significantly. Women also run a safety risk if suddenly there is no bus in the evening.”
In addition, the research shows that apparently positive developments, such as electrification, have a negative effect on the wealth gap. “Higher incomes benefit from cheap green energy from solar panels, while lower incomes cannot take that step and are dependent on expensive public transport or expensive fuel. The lesson to be learned from this is that the government should keep an eye out for those lagging behind in the energy transition and should help them to take that step too,” concludes Van der Tuin.
Public Transport in Curaçao lacks the dynamism to respond to new developments. This was already apparent from a study commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Affairs.
ABC bus company has been running the same routes for 45 years despite the emergence of new neighborhoods and business parks. In addition, the routes are still city-oriented. If you want to travel from one district to another, you have to go via Punda. Nearly ten thousand people use the ‘convoys’ every day, as the ABC buses are popularly called.