Barbados witnessed the emergence of the Public Service Vehicle (PSV) sector in the 1980s. Driven mainly by grassroots enterprise, many of these vehicles were owned by Black operators who converted vans and trucks to transport passengers across the island. Decades later, many Barbadians are left wondering what this sector has actually morphed into in 2026. What we do know is that since those early days, the sector has degenerated into an ungovernable enterprise and is whispered to be owned by prominent Barbadians – doctors, lawyers, judges, politicians, and Indians rapidly owning key businesses – designed to serve the insatiable consumption appetite of Black Barbadians.

PSVs in Barbados have unleashed a level of mayhem on our roads that is unmatched. Predictably, and of equal concern, private motorists have inevitably been modelling this lawless behaviour and are quickly catching up. PSVs, particularly the ZRs, operate with a recklessness that transforms what should be a routine commute into a high stakes survival exercise. On a daily basis, we observe them overtaking on blind corners, squeezing through narrow lanes, and forcing other road users to skedaddle -sometimes with the smell of weed assaulting the nostrils, or a Guinness or Red Bull clenched in hand. They stop wherever: in the middle of a road or a roundabout, and speed through red lights, to name a few transgressions -operating as though the public space belongs to them.

The culture of the sector is defined by naked aggression. Conductors hang precariously from open doors and windows, shouting, gesturing, and daring members of the public, Transport Authority personnel, and the Barbados Police Service to object. Inside the PSVs, music blasts at illegal, ear splitting decibels – to the delight of a predominantly youthful clientele.

Newsflash! If the government has its way, this sector will soon be able to ramp up its brand of chaos on flyovers. Back in the mid 2000s, when 3S Barbados SRL proposed the ABC Highway expansion, the projected price tag escalated to BDS$360 million before the contract was halted and ultimately settled out of court. Some of us wait to see what the new estimated cost -excluding inevitable overruns – will be under an administration that consistently struggles with execution of projects. One only needs to referenced the steel housing initiative under Dr. William Duguid, or the recent, embarrassing inability of government departments to coordinate basic approvals for the Suarez Circus at the Botanical Gardens water zone, to determine our capacity for large projects.

Since the 1990s, regardless of the ‘stature’ of Ministers of Transport, the outcome has remained constant: the PSV chaos only worsens. Santia Bradshaw was shifted from the transport portfolio while retaining her rank as Senior Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. Before her, Ian Gooding‑Edghill was praised and rewarded for his tenure- his legacy will include the West Coast highway resurfacing effort that continues to test the structural integrity of any vehicle driving over it. Can the incumbent Senior Minister, Kirk Humphrey, achieve what his predecessors have failed to do over the last three decades? Unfortunately, the odds are heavily stacked against him BUT it should not negatively impact his political ambitions.

Adding multi‑million‑dollar flyovers to an unpoliced road network will not tame a PSV subculture defined by ignorance. This is a government that cannot enforce the controversial Tint law. How are we expecting it to manage disciplining a PSV sector it has allowed to become ungovernable?

If pigs could fly!