3 guaguas to reach Punta Cana from Bavaro, why this crazyness? any clue?

If there was a non-stop bus:

The guaguas, which operate via territories, would lose business
The taxi drivers, whose union often resembles a mafia, would lose business

The non-stop bus companies would have burned-out vehicles, and the drivers would stand to lose a lot more.

The transportation industry in DR is large, highly developed, and hyper territorial. It's not as if folks haven't thought it through on numerous occasions. It may not be the most efficient way to get from A to B, but it IS the most efficient way to ensure maximum compensation for maximum people.

I hear motos are very inexpensive to purchase....:glasses:

Crazyness

The routes are set as territorial as DRob mentions. You have to view the logistics and transport history of the area to make some sense of the existing route. 15-17 years back there was little scheduled and non-scheduled public transport into the zone, most heavy transport was that of the resorts for private carriage of their employees from Higuey on the existing road system. Veron/Beron was nothing more than a sparsely populated crossroad having traffic directed toward the airport or to Bavaro. Fruisa crossroad had one major building, Friusa, a vendor of restaurant equipment for the resorts. If you needed fuel for your vehicle you would have to travel to Higuey to encounter a commercial vendor.

The area prospered, and grew with commerical and residential construction. Traffic, private and public, continued from Higuey. the known major public transport stops were in the areas of Veron crossroad transiting to the Coco Loco crossroad (near the San Juan mall), making circuitous route to Cortecito, Plaza Bavaro, Friusa, and back to Coco Loco. Large population groups and commercial areas clustered around the stops. Veron is working class and commercial, Coco Loco is commercial, Cortecito is commercial and residential, Plaza Bavaro is commercial with some residential, and the Friusa is commercial and working class residential. The airport traffic as far as public transport was nothing more than a hold over of an existing route servicing the populace of Juanillo prior the the Cap Cana land grab. Now existing public transport includes stops near the airport and Nuevo Junaillo.

The then and now public transport stops exist to service the population and commercial areas around them. The public transport routes to the stops are grandfathered in to the sindicates and there is little chance of deviation without a major crisis amongst them over territory rights. The new highway corridor from the rotary/roundabout at Punta Cana to the Fruisa area is a ripe apple for a new public route direct to the airport from Friusa. However, the market it serves is mostly private for hire, taxis, and group buses intended for the tourist trade. The sindicates do have their eyes on it, yet they gain more in fares by maintaining the Friusa, to Coco Loco, to Veron route with a change of bus at Veron for the public destined to the Punta Cana airport zone.

Note: The above is nothing more than a nuts and bolts explanation of the crazyness.


Regards,

PJT

rubenpriego said:

I hope the new bus company comes soon someday to the area and hits hard traumabapu and sichoprola.
Without competitors, customers have nothing to do, but when you are able to choose .... then things change ...

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Don't hold your breath. As explained above by PJT this is all controlled by the Sindicatos "unions" who operate like mafias and whose MO is intimidation. The last thing the government needs is this tourist area having to be militarized due to these unions burning competitor buses and killing drivers and passengers (They're done it before). So they know they have the government by the gonads, thus things won't change unless they see a way to make more money for themselves.

SO... apart from the "why's".. I'm more interested in the "how's". One early evening, I was trying my hand at my first public bus ride... simple.. from Friusa to Cortecito. The time and circumstance (light rain) were a poor choice, but it was that or a taxi fare (gouge), or a concho.. (wife wisely refuses). I was told to stand across the street from the Texaco, on the road that goes directly back to Cortecito, in front of the little plaza there. Bus after bus goes by, many were obviously charters, others of various types. None stop, even when waved to. As the sun sets, we were approached for the third time by a taxi dispatcher? (had a walkie talkie), who told us the busses where no longer running after dark to Cortecito. Finally resigned to a taxi ride, and dry clothes.

The BIG question is... how to know WHICH bus to take? Where to get it??? our "spot" or half a block away at the station??? and maybe MOST important HOW TO IDENTIFY the bus I was looking for, or others?, (photos anyone???).

Now on the D.R. "big list of things to do", is to take a day and do a bus exploration... seeing what goes where, (hopefully with some good intel to guide me.)

rubenpriego said:

I hope the new bus company comes soon someday to the area and hits hard traumabapu and sichoprola.
Without competitors, customers have nothing to do, but when you are able to choose .... then things change ...

Click to expand...

Sichoprola doesn't exist any more, it's APTPRA now. And anyway when it was Sichoprola, it did not operate any routes within Bavaro/Veron/Punta Cana region. It did operate a direct route PUJ-SDQ in cooperation with Sitrabapu.

Very catch name, that is, Traumabapu...you will get traumatized from the trip.

rubenpriego said:

Suarezn, I dont understand how government allows this behaviour from them or possible, future behaviour in the case there would be competition. It is as easy as saying from the government "if you do anything to the new company bus (destroying buses, hitting drivers) " you will be fined and not allowed to operate in Bavaro anymore ...
On the other hand, thinking about that possible behaviour from traumabapu against competition (I already heard about some issues in the past) shows how this country is ... so long way to go my god, so long way ....

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Ruben: The transport unions are a problem in almost any country including The US...more so in The DR of course. They operate between a fine line that's very close to the way The Mafia operates. No DR government wants to take them on as they would cause massive chaos. For instance there's ONE union that every trucker MUST belong to if they want to haul anything within the country. Companies are forced to use the trucks from this union to get their cargo from ports and in many cases if a company tries to use their own trucks they'll get blocked, intimidated, etc. Revelan Fenatrado bloquea Kola Real - listindiario.com\ There hasn't been any government with large enough gonads to take these thugs on and I doubt there will.