That should be the name of Trinidad's version of traffic, simply because there can't possibly be an iteration of this kind of traffic anywhere else in the world.
There is only one entrance to Port of Spain and one exit. It is estimated that 60,000 cars go to POS every morning of the work week. I spend an average of 2 hours in traffic every morning. That's 10/week, 40/month, 480/annum, a total of twenty days of the year. My vacation time isn't that much. That's not counting the numerous accidents that pile up traffic for miles. Last night, I spent 3 hours from POS to Grand Bazaar, then another hour to Charlieville. One accident. I had an ongoing conversation with the drivers behind and in front of me whenever we moved a few inches and stopped for ten minutes.
Former UNC Minister John Humphrey designed an elegant overpass that might have alleviated the traffic at the Grand Bazaar junction. The PNM shelved the idea and is doing absolutely nothing. I think that thousands of people would have a better quality of life and be more productive citizens if we didnt have to deal with this every morning. We're stuck in traffic of our own design. Improper planning and the whole inefficient nine yards.
Studies repeatedly show that people making long commutes are at a higher risk for a host of maladies. High blood pressure, sleep deprivation, and depression top the list. Meni Koslowsky, a psychologist from Bar-Ilan University in Israel and author of the book "Commuting Stress", notes that Type A personalities, competitive and anxious about wasting time, are particularly prone to being unnerved by traffic. Koslowsky has also found that women who face long commutes are more stressed and depressed by the experience than men and show greater unhappiness with their home lives. That translates to less sex for the men and more frustration at home.
All cities have their traffic problems, but they're doing something about it. We do nothing. Trini's would feel better if we were stuck in traffic because we were doing something about the situation. Like building a new highway/overpass/metro/donkey track.
This is my idea. The Government can use it at no charge, and that's only because it won't be implemented.
Plan A
Set up secure 10 acre parking lots at Mt. Hope, Grand Bazaar, UWI, Barataria and various points East and West. Let people pay to park their cars for a minimal fee. Put the both lanes of the Uriah Butler highway as one way into POS from 5-10 am every morning and outward from 3-7 pm every afternoon. Provide regular and timely shuttles in and out of POS from the parks. Provide amenities and services at these parking lots. Build offshoot toll highways off of Charlieville, directly to the Beetham. Probably a Metro along the Bus Route. I know some of it is swampland but we can import the civil engineering technology like we always have. Other countries have done it.
Plan B
Pay me to develop teleportation technology. Either way it will take the same time if we let history be our guide.
Catch-22. Will building new highways help people who don't want to use mass transit or who can't afford to live where it's available? Not really.
Consider what it would take just to accommodate the projected growth in traffic in POS over the next 20 years if auto dependency isn't reduced. The East West corridor is expected to grow by 250,000 persons by 2020. If current patterns continue, that would mean an additional 200,000 cars into POS. Today, there are 0.25 parking spaces available for every car in POS. To find sufficient parking spaces for another 200,000 cars, the city would need an additional 20 square miles of parking lots.
The next time you're stuck in rush-hour traffic, say tomorrow morning, consider for a moment that you and your paused vehicle are vital cogs in an efficient economy, one that requires in large part that we all go to work, go to school and shop at the same hour. Makes sense to you?
