A Population Affected by Transit Issues

“You are not stuck in traffic. You ARE traffic.” ― TomTom SATNAV Advertisement

Transport is a vital link that brings people and goods together. We rely on it to get to work and for educational, social and recreational activities but the concentration of commercial activities in a relatively small and compact space causes congestion in the urban area. 

Traffic congestion in the CBDs of San Fernando and POS stem from the lack of available parking spaces and high volumes of pedestrian traffic. Double parking along streets which brings traffic to a crawl or complete standstill in certain areas further exacerbates the problem. 
In Trinidad today, purchasing a vehicle is considered a sign of upward social mobility. This, coupled with the flawed regulations of the foreign-used car trade and the perception of the inferiority of public transport, has resulted in a drastic increase in the number of vehicles in the country over the past few years. The worsening problem of traffic congestion on the nation's roadways is accelerating at a rate beyond which the building of adequate infrastructure is able to keep pace.

As a commuter with the public transport service, I am (unfortunately) a witness to the peak times of traffic congestion. Above is an image, taken from on the bus at around 4 o'clock in the afternoon, of the main route drivers use to get from San Fernando back to the Uriah Butler Highway. Here I was lucky to be heading in the opposite direction of the traffic, but other days were quite different. It is clear that the bumper-to-bumper traffic day in and day out in San Fernando, and more so in Port-of-Spain, is quite an ordeal as the line of vehicles extended from the bottleneck to merge onto the highway all the way back into the core of the city. 

Cartoon taken from thelaughinghousewife.wordpress.com

If people are arriving at work already frustrated, because I know I arrive at school already tired, then traffic can be seen as a factor hindering economic activity, productivity and efficiency throughout the nation.  

"Connectedness is a mantra for the new urbanists: through international connection cities exploit the economies assumed to arise from ever-increasing concentration of people and business. Hence, the city seeking to make its mark globally must invest in ever increasing transport infrastructure." - Phil McDermott, From Connectedness to Dispersal: Urbanisation in the 21st Century.

Geographical and physical limitations mean that highways alone cannot solve the problem. In an attempt to encourage commuters off the roads, the water-taxi service was introduced. However, a reducing effect on the traffic situation is yet to be seen as the government refuses to make the necessary expansions. The argument is that the water-taxi service is heavily subsidised and is not economically viable.

Image taken from www.discovertnt.com

Perhaps encouraging inner-city dwellers to use cycling as a mode of transportation within the city can provide a reduction in the amount of occupied space on and along streets of the CBD. But this, along with other solutions, can only come from a great deal of effort and planning by the governing bodies.

Sadly, it remains that apart from the controversial San Fernando to Point Fortin highway project, there are no initiatives to ease the growing traffic congestion which affects not only the urban population but the entire nation.

Check out this video "God Created Transit" from Next City, a non-profit organisation dedicated to connecting cities and informing the people who work to improve them.