move around. Bermuda is not highly centralised and it is seldom possible to walk. Quite sensibly Bermuda's attractions are spread from end to end of the islands, but that means you have to have transport. You have to move people around so that they can use, see, visit and enjoy what Bermuda offers. If we bring visitors to Bermuda and isolate them in their hotels, they don't have a good time and we don't enjoy their spending.

We think it is time for Bermuda to take a hard look at the transportation it supplies, especially for visitors. Our public transportation has remained basically the same for more than 40 years.

United States vacationers are accustomed to arriving in a place and renting a car. They cannot do that in Bermuda because Bermuda does not want them cluttering up the roads. For many years visitors were adequately taken care of because they could hire mopeds. The problem of getting them from end to end was solved. We don't think that solution holds today. Moped use no longer has a high or attractive reputation simply because it is no longer comfortable or very safe. Bermudians have crowded the roads and, we think, no longer give visitors on mopeds the consideration they once did. When the roads were less of a hassle and less dangerous, visitors looked on mopeds as a bit of rather unique Bermuda fun. We think that today they look on them as a perilous necessity. They hear the horror stories of injuries and road rash and many visitors do not want to ride mopeds. There are even people who think that Bermuda is culpable for renting mopeds to visitors at all.

Yet Bermuda has not attempted to provide any real alternative for the convenience of visitors. It is true that in recent years visitors have taken more to the buses and, in response, bus schedules have been geared more to the convenience of visitors but we do not make buses any too convenient by demanding exact fares.

Taxis are too expensive for visitors to take on a regular basis although they may be forced to use them because of irregular bus and ferry services which fold-up early at night. That only adds to the visitors' impression that Bermuda is a very expensive place to visit.

We should take a hard look at allowing hotels to provide their own small bus service for their guests to and from the Airport and the South Shore beaches and for shopping expeditions to town. Failing that, we should provide a free bus ride every morning from the outlying hotels to Hamilton for a day of shopping and lunch with a ride back in the afternoon. We should try express buses from cruise ships docked in Hamilton to and from St. George's and Dockyard, with only a few stops at hotels along the way to get visitors out and about. We have advocated before a jitney "train'' service along the South Shore for access to the beaches and a similar thing could well be run, very attractively, around both St. George's and the Dockyard. Cruise ship tenders are under-used and could run from ships docked in Hamilton to Dockyard and St.

George's and from St. George's to Dockyard... see Bermuda from the water and then enjoy what it offers on land. The overall aim would be to give visitors the option to move about without too much expense or hassle. If we seriously want the ends of the Island to be successful in attracting visitors then we have to service them and service them efficiently. If we want visitor attractions and events aimed at visitors to be successful, then we have to get visitors to them.

When looking at transport it is vital that we add visitor convenience to the list of priorities along with getting people to work and children to school.

We have to remember that it is not enough to get visitors to Bermuda. We must look after their needs once they are here. Too often Bermuda forgets that fact and gears Bermuda only for Bermudians.