Richard Lord

Park­ing re­stric­tions, re­lo­ca­tion of taxi stands and more one way streets are among the ma­jor changes to be in­tro­duced as Gov­ern­ment im­ple­ments new ex­per­i­men­tal traf­fic plans across Trinidad from next Mon­day.The plans were un­veiled by Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er dur­ing a news con­fer­ence at his Port-of-Spain of­fice yes­ter­day."What we have come up with are plans we be­lieve will re­lieve the traf­fic con­ges­tion in these ar­eas and to as­sist in law en­force­ment," Warn­er said.He said plans were to be in­tro­duced in Ari­ma, Port-of-Spain, Ch­agua­nas, San Fer­nan­do, St Joseph, Curepe, Pe­nal, Siparia and Princes Town.

He in­sist­ed that the "wreck­er ser­vice was ef­fec­tive­ly work­ing in Ch­agua­nas and San Fer­nan­do. The ser­vice will be re-ac­ti­vat­ed in those two ar­eas ag­gres­sive­ly."Warn­er added: "These plans had the bless­ings of the may­or of San Fer­nan­do, the may­or of Ch­agua­nas and the may­or of Port-of-Spain."We al­so had meet­ings with DO­MA (Down­town Own­ers and Mer­chants As­so­ci­a­tion) and DO­MA al­so agreed to this."He said the plan was not cast in stone and it would be re­viewed af­ter three months.Warn­er said if the plans were suc­cess­ful af­ter the ini­tial three-month tri­al pe­ri­od, they would be im­ple­ment­ed on a per­ma­nent ba­sis.

Re­sponse to new plan

Chair­man of the Of­fice of Dis­as­ter and Pre­pared­ness (ODPM), Stephen Ram­roop, hopes his or­gan­i­sa­tion will be en­gaged in dis­cus­sion of the new traf­fic plans pro­posed by Works and In­fra­struc­ture Min­is­ter Jack Warn­er.In a brief in­ter­view yes­ter­day, Ram­roop re­vealed that the ODPM had not been a part of con­sul­ta­tions re­gard­ing the new plans for sev­er­al parts of Trinidad.

"We hope that we will be ap­proached with dis­cus­sions so that when we are co-or­di­nat­ing, in the event of an emer­gency, we will not be faced with any sur­pris­es," said Ram­roop.Mean­while, DO­MA and the Tu­na­puna Cham­ber of Com­merce have re­frained from com­ment­ing un­til they could com­pre­hen­sive­ly view the pro­posed plans.

The Port-of-Spain plan:

• No right turn (west­bound) from Wright­son Road to Sackville Street on week­days from 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 6 pm;

• no right turn (west­bound) from Wright­son Road to Ed­ward Street on week­days from 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 6 pm;

• one-way north­bound along Ed­ward Street be­tween In­de­pen­dence Square South and Wright­son Road;

• one-way south­bound along Mur­ray Street be­tween Ari­api­ta Av­enue and the south­ern end of Adam Smith Square;

• one-way west­bound along the south­ern side of Adam Smith Square;

• no right turn from Gat­acre Street on­to Tra­garete Road on week­days from 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 6 pm;

• no left turn from Wood­ford Street on­to Tra­garete Road on week­days from 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 6 pm; and

• no right turn from Ari­api­ta Av­enue to Colville Street on week­days from 6 am to 9 am and 3 pm to 6 pm.

The San Fer­nan­do plan pro­vides for 13 ar­eas of park­ing re­stric­tions:

• Carib Street be­tween Cof­fee Street and 80 me­tres north;

• Carib Street be­tween Howard Lane and Mar­ry­at Street;

• Cof­fee Street be­tween Carib Street and Prince of Wales Street;

• The south­ern side of Park Street;

• Har­ris Prom­e­nade North be­tween Pen­i­tence Street and Chancery Lane;

• Lord Street, be­tween Cof­fee Street and Mu­cu­rapo Street;

• on the west­ern side of Mon Cha­grin Street, be­tween High Street and San Fer­nan­do Street;

• Quen­ca Street, be­tween High Street and St James Street;

• on the east­ern side of Quen­ca Street, be­tween St James and Cha­con Streets;

• Pen­i­tence Street, be­tween Har­ris Prom­e­nade and St James Street;

• High Street, be­tween Chancery Lane and Pointe-a- Pierre Road;

• In­de­pen­dence Av­enue, be­tween Sut­ton Street and Keate Street; and

• Cir­cu­lar Road, be­tween its in­ter­sec­tion with Lon­don Street and to a point 50 me­tres east.

The plan al­so pro­vides for:

• Ve­hi­cles ply­ing the La Ro­maine route shall ply for hire on Cof­fee Street;

• ve­hi­cles ply­ing the St John's Vil­lage route shall ply for hire on Mu­cu­rapo Street; and

• ve­hi­cles ply­ing the Mara­bel­la route shall ply for hire on the east­ern side of Mu­cu­rapo Street;

The plan pro­vides for ve­hi­cles to load and off-load on:

• The north­ern side of Cof­fee Street, from Prince of Wales Street to a point 80 me­tres north; and

• the north­ern side of High Street from a point 50 me­tres from Mon Cha­grin Street to a point 20 me­tres east

Stop­ping/wait­ing is pro­hib­it­ed on:

• Cir­cu­lar Road, be­tween its in­ter­sec­tion with Lon­don Street and to a point 50 me­tres east; and

• Carib Street be­tween Cof­fee Street and to a point 80 me­tres north

Park­ing is per­mit­ted on:

• The west­ern side of Todd Street, be­tween Park Street and Farah Street;

• the north­ern side of Cof­fee Street, be­tween Prince of Wales Street and Cipero Street;

• On the east­ern side of Mon Cha­grin Street, be­tween High Street and San Fer­nan­do Street;

• Har­ris Prom­e­nade South, be­tween Par­adise Street and Har­ris Street; and

• on the west­ern side of Quen­ca Street, be­tween St James Street and Cha­con Street

The Ch­agua­nas Plan

• No right turn from the Solomon Ho­choy High­way ex­it ramp on­to Ch­agua­nas Main Road, east­bound;

• no right turn from the Ch­agua­nas Main Road on­to the high­way en­trance ramp;

• all mo­torists trav­el­ling north along Marc Street must turn left on­to the Ch­agua­nas Main Road;

• South­ern Main Road will be one-way west­bound, be­tween La Clave Street and De Ver­teuil Street;

• Gas­ton Street will be one-way north­bound, be­tween the South­ern Main Road and John Street;

• traf­fic lights at cor­ner of Gas­ton Street and South­ern Main Road to be re­moved;

• Hen­ry Street will be one-way south­bound, be­tween South­ern Main Road and John Street; and

• Smith Street one-way north­bound, be­tween the South­ern Main Road and John Street.

New traf­fic war­dens are to be in­tro­duced to al­so po­lice the new arrange­ments.

Con­ges­tion fee

Di­rec­tor of High­ways, Roger Ganesh, said a con­ges­tion fee should be in­tro­duced in the coun­try to ad­dress the neg­a­tive ef­fects of traf­fic.He said traf­fic con­ges­tion had a neg­a­tive ef­fect on the econ­o­my and in de­vel­oped coun­tries one of the mea­sures in­tro­duced to ad­dress that prob­lem was a con­ges­tion fine/fee."Hope­ful­ly some­time in Trinidad, we'll see that in the next cou­ple of years be­cause we will nev­er be able to build our way out of con­ges­tion in this coun­try," he said.

Con­ges­tion charge is paid by mo­torists in Lon­don and oth­er cities.Wikipedia says:Lon­don Con­ges­tion Charge is a fee charged for some cat­e­gories of mo­tor ve­hi­cles to trav­el at cer­tain times with­in the Con­ges­tion Charge Zone (CCZ)-a traf­fic area in Lon­don.The charge aims to re­duce con­ges­tion and raise in­vest­ment funds for Lon­don's trans­port sys­tem.