Should the owners of vehicles participating in bus crawls be held to the same standard as public service vehicles (PSVs)?
The Road Traffic Act stipulates against the playing of recorded “promotional” music on PSVs, as this type of music is usually played loudly and is full of profanity and sexually explicit themes and language.
Chairman of the Alliance Owners of Public Transport, Roy Raphael, said passengers had a right to be comfortable while using PSVs and warned offenders the alliance was not going to abide them.
However, he noted similar actions were being engaged in on private tour buses conducting bus crawls where loud music was also being played.
“We have an issue with the type of music being played on the public roads in general. While bus crawls are a private affair, they do play the same music which PSVs get penalised for, so if tour buses are considered as PSVs as well, then they are breaking the law, which would be a matter for the police,” he said.
Director of the Barbados Transport Authority, Alex Linton, said he would have to research whether tour buses could be penalised under the Road Traffic Act for playing such music.
“The bus crawl phenomenon is actively at our attention and we have been in discussion with the chief licensing officer and in touch with our partners about it to ensure that whatever is happening is within the aspect of the law,” he said. (CA)
