Motorcycles taxis proliferate, as government cracks down

Motorcycles have recently been flooding the streets of Sana’a, as a consequence of the increase in poverty and unemployment among the Yemeni people, and the bad economic situation, said Ameen al-Khoudari, the general secretary of the motorcycle-taxi syndicate. 

“Those people did not find any alternative source of income so they have resorted to hiring their motorcycles out as taxis in order to work and to keep surviving in this life.”

Three years ago, the government and the local administration in the capital began to make the motorcycle-taxi drivers suffer, so drivers decided to make this a concern of all the motorcycle-taxi drivers in Sana’a, al-Khoudari said.

“They said that these motorcycles are contraband and untaxed. The government did not care about the increase in the number of motorcycles in Sana’a until now, and now they want to make a scapegoat of us.”

The syndicate has tried to organize the motorcycles in the streets of Sana’a better. “We issued safety instructions that every motorcycle should be equipped with a sound silencer and every driver should wear a helmet, but the traffic administration did not cooperate with us.” 

The owners of the motorcycles are poor people and belong to the poorest families in society, despite the fact that most of them are university graduates, he said. The traffic administration puts motorcycle numbers at more than 4,000 and claims that 600 of these have no papers, said al-Khoudari. There are an estimated 10,000 unregistered motorcycles zooming about the streets of Sana’a. 

In 2005, the former mayor of the capital, Ahmed al-Kohlani, issued a law forbidding motorcycle-taxis in Sana’a. The owners of the motorcycles mounted protests demanding the government allow them to work because it is the only source of income for them.  Back in October 2005, President Ali Abdullah Saleh ordered the minister of the interior and the minister of the capital secretariat to solve the problems of the motorcycle owners who were left without work in the capital. He also forbade the import of any new motorcycles and seized those that had reached port.

In 2006, Parliament agreed to license motorcycles conforming with legal requirements and to allow owners to work in accordance with the law.

“We demand the government apply what Parliament has approved and what the president has ordered to solve the problems of the motorcycles drivers and allow them to work according to the legal conditions,” Al-Khoudari said.

“The government, in the form of the traffic administration, does not allow us to earn any money to survive,” said Adel al-Hamdani, motorcycle-taxi driver. “The work is good because many people like to take motorcycle-taxis for their speed. Most of motorcycles drivers do not follow the traffic instructions because traffic officers stop them and ask them for their papers.” 

The traffic manager said that there is no specific law that prevents motorcycles’ drivers from driving in Sana’a’s streets. “The law does not forbid driving motorcycles around, but it does forbid using them to drive people for money. These motorcycles are sold in Yemen for personal use. Thus, those who use motorcycles as taxis are breaking the law,” said Yahia Ali, traffic manager. 

There should be laws preventing those drivers from driving in the streets of Sana’a for many reasons, said Ali. “One of these reasons is crime, for example, if there is a woman in front of a gold store carrying a bag with gold, a motorcycle driver can snatch her bag and run away.”

“Mohammed al-Amri, the deputy of financial affairs of the capital municipality, has formed a committee, that was accepted by the cabinet, in order to look at the problems caused by motorcycles,” said Ali. 

The traffic officers said that most of the motorcycles in Sana’a are smuggled, the drivers do not follow traffic signs, and they cause many accidents in Sana’a’s streets. “Most of these motorcycles are untaxed, and there is no cooperation from the current capital secretariat. The motorcycle drivers syndicate must intensify their work and control the huge expansion in numbers,” said Faisal Farhan and Adel al-Zalab, traffic officers.  

“The increase in poverty and the lack of jobs among people have sent motorcycles numbers soaring,” they said.

“We noticed a huge increase in traffic regulation violations by motorcycles and consider it an uncivilized and random phenomenon,” said Al-Khoudari. “So we made a public means to arrange work and move the motorcycles in Sana’a, for instance, that the driver of a motorcycle must register his name and the motorcycle in the syndicate and he must enter into the capital in legal way and pay taxes to the customs.” Drivers should wear helmets, not stop at places frequented by tourists, hospitals, embassies, presidential or official buildings, and abide by traffic regulations, in order to make the society safer, he said. 

Some people like to take motorcycles when they want to go to somewhere because they say they are faster than cars. “To avoid the crowded streets, I took a motorcycle because it can drive faster and move through cars in incredible way. It looks like an adventure, I like it,” said Najeeb Mohammed, a marketing employee. 

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