The results of the survey on our lingering stagnation on the road in traffic jams has put into hard data that which we are fully aware of in our everyday seeking to get to and from work, and to social events and business duties. Indeed, we spend quite an inordinate and costly quantity of our lives in them.
As found by the survey, done by the reputable United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the average commuter spends 793 hours, cumulatively, 33 days of every year on the road, stuck in frustrating and potentially health and environmentally degrading traffic jams.
It’s universally accepted that time lost in non-productive activity, ie, gritting teeth and in total frustration as individuals are kept back from an appointment and/or assignment for the day, costs not only the individual, but the organisations they work for and the country.
The findings of ECLAC indicate that the annual cost of the delays amounts to $2.2 billion; a significant 1.37 per cent of the total value of goods and services produced in the economy. To get a sense of the importance of the dollar value of the cost of road delays, the figure surpasses the collective $2.1 billion allocated in the 2024 budget to the Ministry of the Attorney General, Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Public Administration, Ministry of Foreign and Caricom Affairs, and the Planning and Development Ministry.
Imagine what a difference that projected cost for lost time on the road, saved and converted into real dollars and cents, and expended in the lives of babies who suffer with nutritional deficiencies; or to train young people in the skills of life and production and much more would mean.
Two factors need serious attention to curtail such losses of time, energy and costs. One, an effective and efficient mass transport system which can take scores of vehicles off the road daily, by encouraging private vehicle owners to leave them home. It may even result in the saving of foreign exchange, as many commuters, satisfied with the public transport system, may not see the need to own a vehicle. There will also be the need for an intermediate transport system, privately or publicly-owned, to take commuters to and from where they are dropped-off at a terminal site.
The second requirement will be to upgrade existing roads and highways to keep pace with the demand. It’s here acknowledged, however, that there cannot be an unending programme of road construction. It may be feasible and productive to open up additional bus routes to accommodate the mass transport vehicles.
In relation to the mass transit system being advocated, we have gone down that road before with the proposed Rapid Rail between the north and central. Recently, Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley said it would be too expensive to return to such an idea. Instead, he said the concentration is on creating and upgrading intersections on the highways.
It seems though that with such intersections, we might simply push the bottlenecks further up and down the line.
Informed by the ECLAC findings, Trinidad and Tobago has the hard information about the impacts of traffic congestion; the challenge is to do something about this major problem.