The LeBron tap-tap and 'public' transport in Haiti

The LeBron tap-tap and ‘public’ transport in Haiti

As my friend C.J. Lotz put it: “Haitian tap-taps often depict celebrities/Jesus/Celine Dion/athletes. Here’s LeBron making a timely appearance.”

This LeBron tap-tap appeared in The Miami Herald recently, and I happened to come upon it while on the Airport Road today in Port-au-Prince.

In 2010, Adam Davidson of NPR’s Planet Money reported on tap-taps for PBS NewsHour:

One of the greatest things about walking around Port-au-Prince is the wildly decorated buses you see everywhere. In Haiti, they’re called tap-taps. They go all over the city — actually, all over the country. They’re cheap. It’s only a few cents to go across town.

Since only around 3 percent of Haitians own their own car, if someone’s going more than walking distance, they’re going by tap-tap. Tap-taps are privately owned. Each one is its own unique work of kaleidoscopic artistry.

…

Why are there pictures of Jesus alongside Kobe Bryant and sexy women? Why are there American flags next to Che Guevara pictures? It’s like the Haitian subconscious exploded on the side of every bus.

Davidson noted that many tap-tap owners pay more to paint their elaborately decorated vehicles than most Haitians make in an entire year. From the transcript:

ADAM DAVIDSON: I asked one owner, Patrick François, why he does it.

TAP-TAP OWNER (through translator): If it doesn’t look nice, people will not get on it.

ADAM DAVIDSON: Tap-tap competition is vicious, complete with dancing recruiters. In seconds, you notice painting really is good for business. Painted tap-taps pull up, load passengers in a few quick minutes, and move off. There are pickup trucks going the same route, and they just sit there, no passengers.

…

My theory is that passengers — and this probably happens subconsciously — figure that someone who pays that much for expensive painting on the outside is also paying to keep up their brakes and transmission on the inside.

Of course, for some, it might be simpler than that. Maybe it’s just a lot of fun to spend some time in a wildly painted tap-tap.

A friend of mine who reported from Haiti for a couple of years always took exception with this depiction, noting that most Haitians don’t really care what a tap-tap looks like as long as it’s headed in their direction and has an open seat. I’d agree that convenience and availability are riders’ first concerns. But vibrant colors and montages of Jesus or American rappers (or both) definitely don’t hurt when trying to attract passengers.

A few more tap-taps from the streets of Port-au-Prince: