The only thing that Sat Maharaj and Dr Rowley agree upon is that Port-of-Spain should be moved to Wallerfield. Kamla disagrees.
I would like to offer a suggestion.
Port-of-Spain is a city unfortunate to be crowded down to the sea by hills. From the east access is from the Beetham Highway, the Eastern Main Road and the Lady Young Road. From the West one comes along the Western Main Road and then move on to the Audrey Jeffers Highway or move left and already be in the city.
The plan: PoS gets in the way of people from east or west who don't want to stop in PoS. All traffic from east or west not destined to stop in PoS must bypass the city via a second storey road from the PoS Central Market to the National Stadium.
You will go up the market overpass and branch off left onto the new road. Coming back it will branch to the left before the flyover to merge with the overpass from Independence Square going over the Eastern Main Road.
Having reduced the traffic in South PoS substantially then we have to cut down on the continuous circulating traffic caused by people looking for parking places that virtually don't exist.
We need to build a big car park by filling in the swamp south of the lighthouse.
Similarly a parking lot can be built on the west of the city probably on land at the western end of Wrightson Road.
A proper bus service originating from these car parks must be provided for servicing the city with a steady flow of buses.
From the lighthouse car park an underground tunnel will pass under the Main Road. After parking east or west of PoS passengers must be guaranteed an efficient service to access whichever part of the city they want to get to without worrying about finding a parking place while only adding to circulating traffic.
This will reduce the PoS traffic considerably. Traffic headed for PoS will be reduced by those parking outside the city and using a bus service.
A similar plan should be considered to ease traffic through Carenage with a second storey road. This could be an alternative to the waterfront road.
Second storey roads are more expensive to construct than ground level roads but relative to building a new ground level road there is no cost of purchasing land and paying for already existing structures to clear the way for the new road.
Maybe then Sat and Keith can agree to leave PoS where it is.
Vincent E Quesnel
Talparo