As T&T’s Carnival season reaches its peak once again, the nation is celebrating another year of events, international visitors and the familiar rush of fetes stretching from dusk to dawn.
Yet beneath the glitter, music, and economic optimism, the long-standing issues of mobility, safety and event management are once again rising to the surface. As Dr Keith Nurse, senior economist and expert in cultural industries among other areas, notes, the refrain has remained unchanged for decades.
“We keep saying Carnival is the biggest attraction for earning foreign exchange, bringing tourism, but it shouldn’t be normal for tourists or even for locals to struggle to get in and out of events,” Nurse told the Sunday Business Guardian.
Just last weekend, thousands of patrons were stranded for hours in the now-infamous “Stink and Dutty” traffic jam, with bumper-to-bumper gridlock stretching deep into the morning — a stark reminder of how quickly poor planning can overwhelm the system.
“We need a different model,” Nurse advised.
For Nurse, who has lectured for years on event management including the science of evaluating carrying capacity, traffic flow, and spatial planning, the answers are straightforward, even obvious.
But, he stressed, T&T continues to treat Carnival logistics as an afterthought rather than a core pillar of the cultural economy.
“There’s something called events management as a science. You have to assess the carrying capacity of a space, and then assess the volume of traffic going into and out of it. That’s basic,” he explained adding, “In other countries, for events of a certain size, you restrict private vehicle use. You facilitate public transport. People park in designated lots and get bused in and out. That’s the only way.”
Chaguaramas, one of the most popular Carnival event zones in recent years, is a prime example of why Trinidad’s ad hoc approach fails, Nurse argued.
With limited entry and exit points, the area becomes gridlocked during large events, with thousands of vehicles attempting to leave simultaneously. The Stink and Dutty jam indeed mirrored scenes that have played out in Chaguaramas time and time again.
“If you have an event of 10,000 people in Chaguaramas, and everyone tries to leave around the same time, of course you’ll get a jam. It’s very simple,” he noted.
Some promoters and attendees have experimented with alternatives, including pirogue transport from the western peninsula back to Port-of-Spain — an innovative workaround that raised questions about whether water shuttles could be formalised into a new Carnival service sector.
Nurse however, was emphatic as he stressed the issue is not the mode of transport.
“It’s not about boats or buses. It’s the principle. Any event expecting over 3,000 people should have a public transport requirement built into its design. People should park elsewhere and take shuttles whether by land or sea instead of driving their personal vehicles into the venue,” he said.
He pointed out that major metropolitan cities manage large-scale events weekly — from football matches to concerts — precisely because public transportation is integrated into event planning.
The PTSC solution — already available, barely used
On concerns that Trinidad’s public transportation system is often unreliable and already a source of frustration for citizens, Nurse dismissed the idea that the existing shortcomings of public transport prevent Carnival-specific solutions.
“You hire PTSC to provide a shuttle service for the event. People could even park as far as Chaguanas and get a shuttle in,” he said.
The key, Nurse emphasised, is bundling transportation into the event-ticketing system.
“You price the transport into the cost of the event. When purchasing your fete ticket, you also purchase your shuttle ticket — $10, $20, whatever it is,” he explained.
This model not only eases mobility issues but also creates new revenue streams for the state.
“It’s an income generator and it provides a critical service really, an essential service for the nighttime economy,” Nurse said.
The nighttime economy — unrecognised but essential
Globally, cities with vibrant nightlife invest heavily in systems to keep late-night workers, partygoers, and tourists moving safely and Nurse noted this concept remains poorly understood locally.
“We don’t conceptualise Carnival as part of a nighttime economy, even though that’s when the biggest events take place and when mobility becomes most dangerous,” he said, adding that between fatigue, alcohol consumption and congested routes, the risk factors multiply.
“People get killed on the roadways not just because of alcohol but because they’re tired. If you’ve been feting all night and then driving more than half an hour home, you’re probably too tired for that journey,” Nurse further explained.
A coordinated system, he maintained, would integrate transport, health, security and emergency services around major events, something that many countries already do for nightlife and festivals.
Incremental change — but no transformation
To be fair, Nurse acknowledged that this country’s Carnival management has improved over the years.
“It’s gotten better, to be honest. But we keep getting better incrementally, rather than better transformatively,” he said, noting that instead of anticipating mobility problems, Trinidad continues to react to them, often only after high-profile traffic jams or public complaints.
This reactive culture, Nurse said, extends far beyond Carnival.
“This is not just a Carnival problem. This is our whole culture of management across the society. Carnival just amplifies it because of its size and visibility,” he added.
Technology exists — it just isn’t being used
Perhaps the most striking irony, Nurse added, is that T&T already has the digital tools needed for better event management.
“We have the technology. We could have an app. People could book arrival and departure times for shuttles. They could see which time slots are overbooked. That alone would help spread demand,” he explained.
Such an app could therefore, help attendees avoid the dreaded crunch by nudging them toward less congested departure times which would reduce traffic, wait times and safety risks.
However, responsibility does not rest solely with the state.
“Event organisers and the private sector also need to offer these services. They benefit from Carnival and they should help manage the mobility overload,” Nurse advised.
Ultimately, he argued for a “total systems approach” to managing Carnival, one that treats mobility, safety and infrastructure as integral to the cultural economy.
Some venues, such as the Queen’s Park Savannah, naturally lend themselves to better flow, with multiple exit routes but other locations require strict limitations on private vehicles if major events are to continue safely.
Until T&T adopts a scientific, coordinated, and modern approach to event mobility, the country would continue to experience what Nurse described as “ad hoc management.”
Still, he believes solutions are well within reach.
“It’s not rocket science. We just need to do it.”
