Traffic woes

This is the first step in the construction of an interchange which is supposed to ease the bottleneck that occurs where the Churchill-Roosevelt, Solomon Hochoy and Uriah Butler highways intersect. And that interchange is in turn part of a grander plan, the main plank of which is the construction of a railway system, which is supposed to ease traffic congestion into Port-of-Spain. However, all these steps will take considerable time and it could well be that, as each phase is completed, the traffic will by that time have increased to an extent that cancels the benefits.

What must therefore happen is that, as these long-term measures get underway, the authorities must come up with medium-term measures to deal with the present-day traffic congestion - ie by early next year, commuters should be able to see some significant improvement. Works Minister Colm Imbert had floated the idea of carpooling, but received so vehemently negative a public response that he has since fallen silent.

However, citizens were probably not objecting to the idea itself — the very absurdity of some of the reasons proffered suggests this — but more to the high-handedness of the proposal. Mr Imbert had also suggested that a fee might be charged for entering Port-of-Spain. This idea did not get any response but, in our view, it may be an effective strategy for reducing the traffic which now clogs the highways and all the arteries leading to the capital city.

No doubt there will also be vociferous objections to such a proposal. Yet there are very good reasons why charging fees for going into Port-of-Spain is reasonable. When a driver buys a car, he pays the purchase price and certain taxes. After that, he is free to drive as much as he wants, once he can afford gas and so on. Yet this means that a driver is not paying the right price for the use of his car, for there is an additional cost to his driving: the inconvenience he puts other motorists to. The fact that every other motorist inconveniences every other motorist does not mean that everything balances off, since some motorists make fewer trips than others or make trips along routes that do not cause traffic.

This is why drivers should be made to pay for trips to a specific destination. But not every trip. The authorities could decide that everyone can make 15 trips a month into Port-of-Spain (or San Fernando or Arima or Chaguanas) free, and pay a fee for any trips in excess of that. The advantage of this system is that it allows each driver to decide what option they want to pursue: pay the fee; cut down on trips; car-pool; take the bus or taxi; or any combination thereof. Whatever is decided, it will probably have a mimetic effect, so that if more people start taking taxis, then fewer private cars on the road will allow taxis to get into Port-of-Spain faster, which in turn means that more people will start taking taxis, or car-pooling, or what-have-you.

The mechanics of a fee system will have to be worked out, including measures to ensure that drivers don’t cheat. But such a task should be relatively simple and, if it is administered efficiently, should improve the traffic situation long before the various projects are completed.