HAVANA, Feb 05 (IPS) – Jorge Sarmientos mentioned he made a superb funding when he purchased an electrical bike to get round and keep away from the nervousness suffered by the customers of Cuba’s poor public transportation system or the excessive costs of personal alternate options.
“It was costly, however I gained independence,” Sarmientos, a Havana-based accountant, advised IPS. “Transportation has by no means been good right here. When there is no such thing as a scarcity of buses, there are shortages of spare elements or gas. Costs needs to be lowered or there needs to be amenities for extra folks to accumulate electrical automobiles.”
Official information point out that half one million electrical bikes are on the roads on this Caribbean island nation of 11 million inhabitants, a type of transportation that helps folks and households get round.
During the last decade, using electrical automobiles has elevated in Cuba, based mostly on customs authorizations for his or her importation.
Extra lately, the home business has begun to assemble completely different fashions, together with electrical bicycles and three-wheelers, utilizing elements imported largely from China.
However the truth that they’re primarily bought in overseas forex is a hurdle to increasing gross sales.
The most affordable fashions in state-owned shops exceed 1,000 {dollars}, whereas others go for as a lot as 6,000 {dollars}.
In Cuba, the typical month-to-month wage is equal to about 35 {dollars} in response to the official change price, or about 16 {dollars} within the casual market.
In keeping with experiences, nearly 40 hybrid buses (alternating diesel and electrical energy) have been added to Havana’s deteriorated fleet of public buses in recent times, a expertise that saves 25 to 30 % of gas and is much less polluting.
However the extreme inner financial disaster and the scarcity of overseas forex are hindering actions to extend the variety of 100% electrical automobiles so as to regularly decarbonize public transportation.
Some corporations and establishments have acquired electrical automobiles, which carry reductions in upkeep prices.
Native options
Within the case of Havana, from 2019 to 2023 the Neomovilidad undertaking was applied, which amongst its targets aimed to strengthen the regulatory framework for an environment friendly transition to a low-emission city transportation system.
Along with prioritizing variables resembling a gender strategy and the inclusion of various age teams, the undertaking supplied a pilot public bicycle rental station, run by a neighborhood improvement undertaking led by younger folks.
It additionally created three routes of three-wheeled electrical ecotaxis pushed primarily by ladies in outlying neighborhoods of Boyeros, one of many 15 municipalities that make up Havana.
The three-wheelers are mild, motorized automobiles with a capability for six passengers within the again, much like the autorickshaws or tuktuks which might be frequent in Asia. Right here they’re additionally known as motocarros or mototaxis.
“I feel they’re an amazing choice for getting round shortly over brief distances, and at inexpensive costs,” retiree Gloria Almaguer, a resident of the Fontanar neighborhood in Boyeros, advised IPS. “The unhealthy factor is that there aren’t sufficient to cowl demand, they’ll carry just a few folks, and there are specific instances of day once they ‘vanish’.”
The Neomovilidad undertaking was executed by Havana’s Normal Directorate of Transportation, applied by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) workplace in Cuba and financed by the Global Environment Facility (GEF).
Different fleets of ecotaxis present service within the capital’s municipalities of Outdated Havana, Central Havana, Guanabacoa, Playa and Plaza de la Revolución, additionally with UNDP help. These are all initiatives that contribute to the nationwide dedication to mitigate local weather change.
With routes starting from two to 4 kilometers and low costs, a bit greater than 100 of those automobiles assist present an answer for sustainable micro-mobility in city areas.
In different Cuban cities, related three wheelers with inner combustion engines are in service.
One problem is that the overwhelming majority of ecotaxis and electrical automobiles rely upon the nationwide electrical grid to recharge their batteries. The ecotaxis recharge in the course of the night time at their terminals within the parking a number of public entities, and privately owned automobiles accomplish that at their house owners’ properties.
It’s because thus far there is no such thing as a infrastructure that may permit electrical automobiles to be recharged in a community of service stations.
Round 95 % of Cuba’s electrical energy technology depends on fossil fuels.
The federal government considers it a matter of nationwide safety to remodel the vitality combine, and goals for greater than 30 % of electrical energy to come back from clear energies by 2030, a purpose that can be tough to attain because of the want for a excessive degree of funding.
New gas costs
A majority of the Cuban inhabitants is dependent upon the general public transportation system, based mostly primarily on buses and different fossil fuel-consuming automobiles.
In Havana, residence to 2.1 million inhabitants, “lower than 300 buses are working, a metropolis that within the Nineteen Eighties had 2,500 buses and solely 4 years in the past had 600,” mentioned Transport Minister Eduardo Rodríguez Dávila throughout a tv look in October 2023.
The best affect falls on these with the bottom buying energy, since buses are essentially the most inexpensive technique of transportation.
The panorama is analogous in Cuba’s different 14 provinces. Different transport in city, suburban and rural settlements consists of modified vehicles, conventional horse-drawn carriages and bicycle cabs which carry one or two passengers and are pedaled by the motive force.
In Havana, estimates place the overall variety of passengers who use non-public transport at round 25 %, typically in previous U.S.-made automobiles, the so-called “almendrones” – non-public cabs with fastened routes – which run on gasoline or diesel and aren’t inexpensive for everybody.
Along with the deterioration of the automobile fleet, the persistent scarcity of spare elements, lubricants and different provides, and the migration of drivers to sectors with better financial advantages, the gas scarcity has been one of many foremost causes of the irregular public transportation service, which has been accentuated within the final 5 years.
“You’ll be able to spend an hour ready, or extra. Numerous instances I am late for sophistication, although I rise up very early. I am unable to afford a personal automobile day-after-day. It is more and more tough to get anyplace,” pressured structure scholar Yenia Hernández in an interview with IPS, as she waited at a bus cease with dozens of different folks within the Central Havana municipality.
Power crises have change into extra recurrent since 2019, in parallel with the decline of the home financial state of affairs and the dearth of overseas forex.
In keeping with the authorities, this case has a number of causes, from breach of contract by suppliers to U.S. authorities sanctions that hinder entry to credit score and companies from worldwide banks.
In 2021 Cuba imported 126,000 tons of gasoline, in 2022 some 192,000 tons, and in 2023 round 203,000 tons. Regardless of the rise, the determine stays under the demand of about 360,000 tons, Power and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy mentioned in a televised assertion on Jan. 8.
Alternatively, this island nation wants 1.8 billion {dollars} to cowl its annual diesel wants.
“In 2023, 609,000 tons of diesel may very well be imported, for about 600 million {dollars} (one third),” added the Power and Mines Minister.
As of Feb. 1, a rise within the value of gasoline and diesel was deliberate, so as to carry the promoting value in Cuban pesos according to the official price of the greenback, regulate gross sales and promote a portion solely via dollar-backed playing cards, so as to assure resupply with the overseas forex, in response to the federal government.
However the measure was postponed till additional discover as a result of a “cybersecurity incident” brought on by “a virus from overseas” that affected the system of gas gross sales, which is being investigated, official data mentioned.
The technique to eradicate subsidies tasks, as of Mar. 1, a rise in interprovincial transportation fares, with hikes of virtually thrice the price of bus fares and 6 to seven instances the price of prepare tickets.
Whereas the fares for a part of the general public transport service will stay unchanged, within the case of Havana, the fare for electrical three wheelers will rise from 4 to 10 pesos (0.03 to 0.08 {dollars}).
The will increase in gas costs and transportation fares are along with the bundle of provisions that features tax and tariff modifications as of Jan. 1 and which, in response to authorities officers, are geared toward “rectifying distortions” within the economic system and boosting its restoration.
“The one factor I see is that some transportation can be costlier, however there will not essentially be extra automobiles, or extra trendy automobiles with higher service,” Reynaldo Martín, {an electrical} engineer dwelling in Outdated Havana, advised IPS. “Wages stay the identical and meaning I am unable to even dream of shopping for a bicycle.”
© Inter Press Service (2024) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service
