Five thousand and seventy-seven vehicles make their way into Port of Spain every morning. In just one day, 56,199 vehicles enter the capital. This according to Parsons Brinckerhoff, Quade and Douglas Inc., and Trintoplan Consultants Ltd, consultants hired by the Ministry of Works and Transport to conduct a Comprehensive National Transportation Study.

The 18-month long, 2005 Study — executed at a cost of $23.9 million—is now two years old, and indicates where the “sticky” traffic points are and why.

Brinckerhoff identified several urban traffic issues:

• On-street parking

• Vehicle/pedestrian interaction

• Indiscriminate public transit stopping

• Urban network grid/land use characteristics

• Pavement conditions

• Signal timings/network system optimisation

• Commercial loading and unloading They also identified accompanying solutions, including:

• Efficiently distributing the traffic entering Port-of-Spain

• Creating effective bypass routes around the city

• Reducing or eliminating on-street parking

• Providing adequate off-street parking

• Creating a people-friendly environment

• Co-ordinating land use and transportation infrastructure development

• Moving people efficiently through the city using buses.

Most people will agree that two facts are not in contention: More cars have joined the road network since that study was done, and Government’s construction of the Waterfront Project and the Government Campus will not ease traffic in the city. This, even though the Waterfront Project comes with 1,200 parking spaces and another 1,600 at the parkade on Richmond Street. Government seems well aware of the problems - witness Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s statement about the “inadequacies of our transportation network” in the 2006/2007 budget.

Roger Ganesh, Director of the Highways Division, Ministry of Works and Transport, says the number of cars in the country has been put at 750,000. He’s all for Government’s proposed rapid rail project. “We need a mass transportation system here. We need a rail because there’s limited real estate in this country to build highways. We need something that could actually transport passengers en masse from Point A to Point B in a more efficient way cross-country. The rail is an ideal concept of transporting passengers,” he says, “It minimises the amount of real estate.

A highway requires much more land space for intersection, control. You need a right of way of probably four times what you need for a rail. A rail is a narrow piece of land, but the carriages are much larger. You have carriages that could probably hold 100 persons.

[Whereas] a highway uses a car and you are not guaranteed the car will be full”.

The highways expert says it’s ridiculous that vehicles entering Port of Spain on mornings usually carry a maximum of two people. “We don’t have high occupancy vehicle lanes— as in London, New York and Miami—where you can use a particular lane on the highway to get to the city, but you must have a minimum of three persons in the car.” Meanwhile, he dismisses as “pie in the sky” some engineers’ comments that larger buses on T&T’s highways could make transportation more efficient.

Mr. Ganesh spoke of major public sector projects to be implemented by the National Infrastructure Development Company (NIDCO):

• Extension of the Solomon Hochoy Highway from San Fernando to Pt. Fortin, a distance of 25 miles

• Extension of the Solomon Hochoy Highway to Rio Claro through Princes Town, 30 miles

• Extension of the Churchill Roosevelt Highway from Cumuto to Manzanilla, 25 miles According to Mr. Ganesh, implementation of these projects will substantially reduce travel times from those areas into the East/West Corridor. Works and Transport Minister Colm Imbert has confirmed that the rail project will proceed as part of Government's overall national transportation plan and will cost no more than $7 billion. He has not specified whether that price-tag includes stations, rail cars and associated infrastructure (like car parks).

Who understands traffic issues better than an expert? Dr. Rae Furlonge is just that man. He offered some startling statistics which have led us to the gridlock we experience daily to and from work. Consider the enormity of this data. In the 30 years between 1966 and 1996, morning peak hour westbound vehicle traffic on the Beetham Highway, just in front of the WASA sewage pumping station, increased annually by only 0.33%. However, in just nine years between 1996 and 2005, the annual rate of growth was a staggering 8%. This means that over the last nine years, the number of vehicles added to the traffic flow into Port of Spain from the East has risen steadily every year by 8%.

In fact, this rate of growth of traffic exactly matches the annual rate of growth of vehicles registered by the Licensing Office over the same period, emphasising the degree to which business is centralised in the capital city.

Consider, too, the data (admittedly outdated) for the traffic on three main arteries: the Beetham Highway, Priority Bus Route (PBR) and the Eastern Main Road (EMR). According to Mr. Furlonge, 1996 data showed that 5,953 persons travelled on the Beetham in 2,176 vehicles at that screenline; on the PBR 4,933 persons in 485 vehicles; and, on the EMR 9,193 persons in 1,835 vehicles.

In other words, the Beetham had average vehicle occupancy of 2.7 persons; PBR had 10; and, EMR had 5. Put another way, this means that the PBR carried just about the same number of persons as the Beetham and Churchill-Roosevelt Highways, but in onequarter the number of vehicles, or that the PBR and EMR combined carried more than 70% of persons traveling from the East and South, but in one-half the number of vehicles on the Beetham and Churchill Roosevelt Highway.

Even if the data is dated ten years, little has changed about the culture of travel. We can remain confident that Trinidadians are still opting for the convenience of driving their own cars rather than taking public transport.

In 1996, in the East/West Corridor, the ratio of transit usage to automobile usage was 60%:40%. In 2005, this ratio was 40% transit vs. 60% automobile usage. “In just nine years, the modal share has shifted by 20% toward private car usage, aided and abetted by Government policy,” Dr. Furlonge wrote recently.

Calling it a shame, Dr. Furlonge said the best current values in developed countries for the modal share of public transport ranged between 30%-50%, and the acceptable range for developing countries was 50%-70%.

Dr. Furlonge proposes the introduction of a tram-type light rail on the following route: northbound on Frederick Street, clockwise around the Queen’s Park Savannah, southbound on Henry Street, westbound on South Quay, and back up Broadway to Frederick Street. He suggests that this will serve as a major local and foreign tourist attraction, and will also lure people into the city after hours.

T&T’s Major Corridors

• Port of Spain to Diego Martin

• Port of Spain to Arima

• Port of Spain to San Fernando

• Tobago: Scarborough to Crown Point T&T’s Major Arteries

• Western Main Road/Audrey Jeffers Highway/Wrightson Road

• Beetham Highway/Churchill Roosevelt Highway

• Eastern Main Road

• Priority Bus Route

• Uriah Butler Highway/Solomon Hochoy Highway

• Southern Main Road

• Tobago: Claude Noel Highway/Milford Rd.