A proposal by United National Congress Senator Wade Mark to ban heavy-T vehicles from the roads during peak hours has been shot down by the T&T Contractors’ Association (TTCA), who are countering that such a move would trigger a chain reaction which will force businesses to open later and incur additional costs which may trickle down to the public.
The suggestion was put forward yesterday by Mark during a Joint Select Committee meeting on Land and Infrastructure chaired by Deoroop Teemul at the J Hamilton Room, Parliament Building, Port-of-Spain.
Appearing before the committee were officials of the Ministry of Works and Transport, Rural and Local Government and Transport Engineering at the University of the West Indies.
In his opening remarks, senior lecturer in Transportation Engineering at UWI, Trevor Townsend, said a recent survey on campus showed that 50 per cent of the vehicles that use the Priority Bus Route have been light private cars. Removing such cars from the PBR, Townsend said, can allow for a faster turn around of buses and improve its delivery of service. He expressed disappointment at private vehicles being allowed to use the PBR to ease traffic congestion on Carnival Monday and Tuesday last month, saying drivers should have been urged to travel by bus instead.
“That will cause anyone to die if there is a flood. If you have to move people in a hurry out of a city, then you commandeer your routes and bring in your high occupancy vehicles and then you move them out. Not the other way around,” Townsend said.
Mark pointed out that T&T was like “Rip Van Winkle sleeping while the world was progressing” with a transport plan. He said T&T’s transport plan, which was established in 1967, had not been revised or updated. He also questioned what was being done to remove heavy-T vehicles from the roads during rush hours.
“They endanger my life ... travelling at tremendous speed,” Mark said.
He suggested that such vehicles be banned from 6 am to 6 pm on the roads, as they often cause gridlock and chaos for other drivers.
“Move them out completely during those hours and let them come in the midnight hour....from ten in the night to five in the morning,” Mark suggested.
In February, the Ministry of Works commissioned its new weight control scale (weighbridge) on the Solomon Hochoy Highway to monitor loaded trucks after Licensing Division officers noted issues with overloaded vehicles. Works and Transport Minister Rohan Sinanan also addressed the issue of heavy vehicles damaging the roadways at the recent reopening of the refurbished Laventille Road in Febeau Village, San Juan, earlier this month.
In response to the issue yesterday, Works and Transport Permanent Secretary Sonia Francis-Yearwood said the importation of heavy vehicles comes under the Trinidad Transport Board and not their purview. Two weeks ago, she said officials from the ministry met with large contractors to address the utilisation of heavy vehicles on the roads.
“While it was not directly in relation to the issue of traffic congestion, but rather the actual utilisation of the roadway and the size and weight of the vehicle and the effect on the roadway.”
She promised that further discussions will take place on the issue.
“The issue of the restriction of the vehicles in terms of time is not solely an issue with the Ministry of Works and Transport but it transcends to other areas inclusive of trade. But it is an area that will be addressed in the national transportation plan,” Francis-Yearwood said.
Commenting on the issue hours after the JSC meeting, however, TTCA president Ramlogan Roopnarinesingh, whose contractors operate the largest fleet of trucks in the country, fired back at Mark, describing his suggestion as senseless, baseless and without thinking.
“Mark needs to understand the concept of what these vehicles do and how they work,” Roopnarinesingh said, adding a committee comprising members of the association and ministry will be formed to come up with solutions to the issues raised.
He said trucks go to businesses during working hours to collect and deliver items, adding the recommended time by Mark will trigger a recipe for disaster, as business owners would have to fork out an additional cost to operate at such late hours which would be passed on to consumers.
“I don’t understand what Mr Mark is talking about. So, in other words, trucks would have to wait until 10 pm to move out of a distribution area. Who is going to pay that extra cost?” —Shaliza Hassanali