Small and practical it may be, but the tuk-tuk remains illegal: Nahed Nassr takes a controversial ride It was a cold and rainy night Everyone running home In the street, with heavy bags I call for a fast and lovely tuk-tuk But the tuk-tuk leaves me standing... I need you, tuk-tuk The song goes on, describing the man's broken heart. Ahmed Fathi, the singer, is hardly known, but the song has proved popular -- reflecting the increasing popularity of this medium of transport -- imported from Southeast Asia but as yet new and illegal. A modified motorcycle with a low capacity engine, three wheels and a covered roof, it can fit up to three passengers -- precariously, with one next to the driver. People have even converted older, smaller cars into tuk-tuks. First seen in the Nile Delta, whence Fathi hails, it is increasingly the headache not only of taxi drivers but of the media and even policy-makers in the capital. It throws so many of Cairo's problems into relief: traffic, unemployment, the environment and, of course, security. For residents of low-income neighbours like Um Gamal -- a teacher and the mother of three who lives in Imbaba -- the tuk-tuk solves a pressing transportation problem, saving effort and time: "After a long day working, walking to the market is exhausting. And I can't afford a daily taxi ride, which would take too long in the traffic anyway. Only the tuk-tuk brought me relief. It is cheap, fast and easily available." Still, she complains of the drivers being "careless teenagers driving rashly and too fast -- and if you end up in a crash, who do you complain to, since they have no licences and their vehicles don't even have numbers..." Car drivers have complained too: "they can hit you and get away with it, because legally speaking they don't even exist. You can either give the driver a driving lesson, or let it go." But reckless driving is not the only problem: concerns centre on the use of the tuk-tuk in crime, with sexual offenders including rapists getting away with their crimes partly because their machines are anonymous. A lady who took a tuk-tuk home near Shubra was abducted and raped by the driver and three of his friends; in a widely publicised case a few months ago, a little girl named Hind accused a tuk-tuk driver of raping her; following such news, indeed, Sahar, a resident of the Faisal suburb of Kafr Thurmus, has boycotted the tuk-tuk. "I saw it with my own eyes," she says. "One tuk- tuk sped past while we heard a lady screaming -- her handbag had been snatched by the driver. Thanks to the traffic he could not go far and the bag was brought back with the help of the people." The microbus -- the most common mode of economy transport, may be less convenient, she says, but it's safer. Though one village council, that of Nawasa Al-Gheit, set up a registration system in Daqahliya, the inherent illegality of the vehicle remains the greatest concern of people all across Egypt. For one resident of Nawasa Al-Gheit, "the tuk- tuk has solved the problem of transportation, yet it brings its own problems. The only licence permitted to the vehicle is for personal use -- not for public use. Even those personal licences are not being handed out anymore: the registration system set by the local administration in my village is a joke because it is not recognised by the Ministry of Interior or the Traffic Directorate. The problem the authorities have yet to introduce a legal alternative." According to the National Democratic Party (NDP) part of President Hosni Mubarak's electoral programme, amendments to the traffic law aimed at organising and legalising the tuk-tuk, however, have yet to be discussed in parliament. According to the director of the Cairo Traffic Directorate, General Serageldin Zhagloul, "it has to be clear to everyone that to this day no law on the subject of tuk-tuk licensing exists. If approved, the proposed amendments will legalise the tuk-tuk in the other governorates but not in Cairo or Giza." Hitherto, "where a tuk-tuk is captured, it is placed under expropriation and its owner fined about LE500." And yet, notwithstanding all its problems, the tuk-tuk has economic benefits: in addition to solving transportation problems, it is business for its sellers, owners and even drivers. According to Karam Saber, director of the Land Centre for Human Rights (LCHR), who works mostly in the Delta governorates, "on the one hand, the tuk-tuk facilitates movement from one village to another, especially to the central village where schools, hospitals, agricultural associations and markets exist. Transportation is a major issue in the countryside and it affects people's lives." Saber believes the tuk-tuk is also an opportunity for many young people to overcome a crippling lack of job opportunities. "In Daqahliya, for example, there are up to 50,000 tuk-tuks used for two shifts a day. This means that there are job opportunities for up to 100,000 young men." A group of young men will pool resources to buy a tuk-tuk, others will buy it on instalments. "I know people who borrowed the money or mortgaged family animals to buy a tuk-tuk," Saber adds. And the tuk-tuk counters unemployment in the city, too. Mohamed Abul-Soud, a young resident of Warrak, says driving a tuk-tuk has proved indispensable: "I earned my BA in law in 2000, but I couldn't find a job for seven years. A few months ago, a neighbour of mine -- whose brother, a plumper who went to Saudi Arabia, sent him money to buy a tuk-tuk -- asked me to drive it for a third of the profit. I make around LE500 a month, which is more than the LE150 I would make as a trainee lawyer. At least I am not obliged to sign a blank check as is the tradition with most tuk-tuk drivers -- the owners' way to guarantee their rights if the machine is damaged." Others like Fathi Said, a shopkeeper in Warrak now dealing in tuk-tuk spare parts -- initially imported from India, now from China, where they are cheaper -- have benefited from the spread of the vehicle: "Tuk-tuk spare-part shops are everywhere now. The tuk-tuk is small and inexpensive compared to a taxi. It used to cost LE16,000-17,000, now the price has gone up to LE19,000 and LE23,000 on most instalment plans. It doesn't use up too much fuel and it can go where a taxi can't. A tuk-tuk makes no less than LE40 a day. The machine enters the country in spare parts and is put together in companies in 6 October City and elsewhere." Maybe they should just be accepted... Many taxi drivers are angry, however: in September, taxi and microbus drivers in Zifta organised a sit-in at the Traffic Directorate building for four hours to protest against the spread of the tuk-tuk in the town and its surrounds. Yet tuk- tuk drivers themselves seem to be living in a world apart, isolated from the heated debate outside their leather roofs, with their decorated and colourful vehicles displaying religious sayings, proverbs, football teams' mottos and pictures of famous figures including Che Guevara and Bob Marley. Just take a ride in a tuk-tuk and you will listen to the most recent pop urban folk songs -- including, of course, Fathi. Many are even fitted with brand-new MP3 sets -- not the tuk-tuk's only surprise.
