I have great reservations regarding any other transport that isn’t an automobile, simply based on how exposed you are and how easy it is for anyone to just snatch you and steal from you.
Even if an ordinary automobile wont stop bullets, it provides a physical barrier between the occupants and the outside world, and you also have an important amount of horse power at the tip of your foot.
But what about the most poor segment of society that needs some transport but can’t afford anything else?
Here’s a couple of solutions people came by.
1) Horse and cart .
“Botelleros” cutting the La Noria bridge in 2003, demanding they be allowed to work and go around the city with their carts.
Popularly known as “botelleros”, they are part of our local culture already.
People so poor, they make a living by collecting bottles, paper and other things they can sell to recycle, or pick other things people throw away to fix, resell or use it themselves.
Some people talk about how expensive having a horse is.
These guys, they use horses to work everyday, and they don’t even live in the country, they live in the city. They keep the animal watered and look for some grass in an abandoned lot to keep the horse fed.
Sometimes the animal is abused but more often than not you see “botelleros” taking good care of their horse, probably because it’s their basic work tool after all.
Point here is, if it comes to that, you can have a horse in the city without spending a fortune, and you can keep the animal fed. These guys are a proof of it.
Nothing fancy here. Almost everyone knows that already, how effective bikes are for moving around.
But those of us that spent any amount of time on the road with one also know they can be a pain in the butt if you require to transport any significant load along with you.
Solution? At least here, it came in the form of tricycles.
I’ve seen gardeners use them to move around heavy equipment, people using it to move loads of paper to recycle, move around groceries (several times what they would be able to carry just using their hands) , etc.
If crime isn’t that bad and the distances involved are rather short, seriously consider one of these:
Take care folks.