Gone are all those years in which the sponsorship lost its relevance as it was impossible to think of calling somebody to make an agent of AMET forgive you for breaching a traffic light, driving without seat belt or failure to comply with any other law of transit.

Gone are also those days when it was almost impossible for a mom and dad's son, that the nephew of the general, the mistress of a Colonel, could slip out a fine with a simple phone call.   Those were the days! At the airport, nobody asked for anything or any institution.

Hope flowered everywhere.  Dominicans thought that the abuses would come to an end, leading into order  and, consequently,  progress would come along.

Today, when I see AMET raids, addressed, of course, only to bikers riding without helmets, I feel deeply sorry and seek for a logical reason as to why an institution conceived to impose order in transit, set the example of respect, fulfillment and good performance, has degenerated into a scribble as almost the rest of public entities in this country.  

You get shocked when you see vehicles speeding, without lights, breaching traffic lights, driving the wrong way when you hit the streets of this country and nobody seems to care, while AMET agents play the role of escorts of politicians, while our citizens are defenseless.

I am completely clueless as to the raids to bikers without helmets.  Although our streets are now free of junk, it is also true that the role played by these agents is far from the standards that were originally conceived.

Law 393-97, which is the one that rules AMET, quotes:  “Transport has been increasingly becoming a social, economic and ecological problem, and there’s no improvement whatsoever”.

Their performance is very poor. If raising funds, as many say, it is the reason for the raids, I believe that imposing fines for violation the transit law, would increase considerably the collection than chasing and fining bikers.  Fines represent a significant proportion of revenues in major cities, moreover, contribute to reinforce order and respect.