Govt’s answer to traffic woes — Carpooling and No entry to cars with driver only

Saying that Government had to deal with the problem of congestion and overcrowding, Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert said the carpool policy would “definitely” be introduced this year for Port-of- Spain and other congested areas. Imbert explained that “moral suasion” and public education would be used in the “experimental phase.” But if these did not work, legislation — restricting access to certain areas by cars “with only one person in it” would be introduced, Imbert said.

Furthermore, Government was “seriously considering” limiting the age of foreign used vehicles to three years “or maybe even less”, he said, adding that discussions would be held with importers before any ban is imposed.

Speaking to reporters after the opening of the Diego Martin Highway Extension, Imbert said the country was “way over the number of foreign used vehicles”.

In terms of the number of cars per head, this country was “very close” to the top in the world rankings. “But if you look at the car usage, you will see that most cars have only one person in it. Look there!” he said, pointing to several cars passing on the new Diego Martin Highway Extension. He said Trinidad and Tobago had to go the route of the developed countries and introduce specific measures such as carpooling. “You cannot have your cake and eat it. People cannot complain about congestion and about spending hours on the roads (in traffic) and then say we should not deal with it aggressively. There are just too many cars on the roads,” he said, adding that restrictions would also apply to the number of trucks.

Imbert conceded that this would be an “inconvenience” and that people “might even feel that it is a form of harassment, but we can’t sit idly by and throw our hands up in the air, and not do anything about it. We have to look at First World solutions,” he said.

Told that in the absence of a reliable public transportation system, it was unfair for Government to take such action, Imbert said this year PTSC was going to buy more than 50 new 40-seater buses to service suburbs like Diego Martin and for the rural areas. “That will take care of (transporting) 2,000 people, and if we use the one person per car theory that is 2,000 cars that may come off the road,” he said.

He added that PTSC was also moving this year to increase its fleet of larger buses from 100 to 200. “So you will have bus transport as a viable alternative,” he said.

He also promised that there would be discussions “over the next three months” with road users, the Automobile Association, the Used Car dealers and others, before the “experimental phase” of the project begins.

Imbert also stated that by the end of the year there will be a ferry service between San Fernando and Port-of-Spain.

“We are looking at a hydrofoil as opposed to a fast ferry because it (the hydrofoil) requires less water depth (two to three feet) and therefore can comfortably dock at King’s Wharf,” he said.

(A hydrofoil is a boat that travels on water without its hull touching the water).
He said he was mandated by the Prime Minister to make this project a priority. This would also take “thousands of cars off the road”, he noted.

Housing Minister Dr Keith Rowley said the densely populated Diego Martin Valley had more cars per square foot than anywhere else in the country.

Saying that Diego Martin was a microcosm of what the country could and would become, Rowley said the transportation problem could not be solved by everyone having a Japanese car and building roads for every car. “We will end up with the country being one huge parking lot and one giant gridlock,” he said. “No matter how many (roads) we build, we can import cars faster than we could build roads,” he said, stressing that the country’s “tremendous access” to the Japanese motor car market had serious implications for the road infrastructure.

He noted that the Diego Martin Highway Extension would not solve the traffic problem for people living in Diego Martin, most of whom work in Port-of-Spain, because “as we leave Port-of-Spain our problem begins at Movie Towne”. “So the bottlenecks along the way will have to be addressed if we are to get the full benefit of this aspect of construction,” Rowley said.