Six hours daily on the road

THE EDITOR: Please permit me a space to voice my frustration at the traffic situation on our nation’s roads, especially the roads leading to the capital. I live in south Trinidad and I remember when I just purchased my car, I used to leave home at 5.30 am, drop my sister at UWI and still reach to work by 7 am.  I must add that I felt it necessary to obtain a car because getting transportation to travel to south was an exercise in endurance, patience and mental fortitude. Getting a bus was difficult, even when they introduced a bus directly to Point Fortin.  Getting a taxi was even worse. Oh! I can’t forget that getting a maxi was an exercise in agility, who could squeeze through the door or window and walk on top or climb over another’s head. I couldn’t deal with that, so I got my own car. 

Well, it was good for a while but since January 2004 it all changed, and the situation has been getting worse. If I leave home at 5.30, I can’t drop my sister at UWI and I still reach to work by 8.30 for the earliest. Why? Too much traffic.  On average, I spend five to six hours a day on the road. You may say it is my fault, I should seek accommodation closer to town. I wouldn’t even begin to discuss the problems of trying to find a decent apartment in a good neighbourhood closer to Port-of-Spain and at an affordable price. But is living closer to Port-of-Spain any better?  Friends from Arima, Maloney, and even Chaguanas, all complain about the traffic and the stress, unhappiness and frustration associated with it. 

Yet, despite the obvious traffic congestion those in authority seem to be oblivious to the desperate cry of the nation’s working class, because nothing is being done to address this problem.  I don’t have all the answers but I could suggest the improvement of the public transport system, the creation of new access routes into Port-of- Spain, multi-storey car parks on the city’s outskirts with efficient inter-city public transport facilities, decentralising services, tax incentives for companies who establish jobs outside the city, incentive programmes for car pooling and increased police patrols to maintain order on the road. All I want is for the Government to at least appear as though they care.

C PIERRE
Deep South