I heard the Minister of Transport say that from where he
sits he believes the cause of much of the traffic in T&T
is driver attitude.
Put another way, he is saying that drivers themselves breach
the traffic regulations, and this. to a large extent, is responsible
for the traffic congestions in the country.
His solution in the short term, he emphasises, is to meet
with the Minster of National Security and seek to have the
traffic laws enforced.
Like many other citizens, I am forced to spend a lot of time
on the roads in traffic.
This in itself is a source of claustrophobia, as one is often
jammed in by other vehicles on all sides, unable to move.
The only hope offered for a solution is talk of new highways,
trains and tramcars sometime in the future.
I find it hard to believe I’ll see a train or an effective
ferry system in this lifetime, far less a water taxi.
This is because in the nearly six years that the PNM has been
in power, its history of actual implementation in terms of
building schools, police stations and fixing roads has not
been good.
The Minister of National Security himself had to admit that
he was having trouble to complete only five police stations.
It is really only in the area of housing that there has been
some satisfaction.
So, until the long-term solutions materialise, we must look
to short and medium-term answers to our traffic woes.
If, as the minister says, the traffic is, to a large extent,
caused by bad attitude, what can be done about this?
Illegal driving
As a driver who spends a lot of time on the road, I have observed
that persons engage not just in illegal driving per se, but
selfish driving. For example, a man (and it almost invariably
is) will overtake a long line of traffic and in doing so occupy
the opposite lane.
Suddenly, vehicles are coming towards him and he just swerves
back to his lane between two cars that have been patiently
following the line of traffic. The drivers have no choice
but to give way, otherwise a collision will ensue.
Such a driver obviously thinks that he or his business is
more important than anyone else’s. And if you dare to
challenge him about his wilfully dangerous behaviour, he is
likely to be actually obscene In response.
It’s the same kind of attitude you get from people who
park (or stop) blocking a driveway. Even if they are in the
vehicle, they appear to be totally unconscious that someone
may actually want to get into or out of the drive.
Almost every day this happens in front of my office in Port-of-Spain.
As for those who double park just for their own convenience,
to get a roti or doubles quickly, you have to wonder if they
can think at all.
If they did, surely they would not wish to have such a back-up
of traffic caused by such a small selfish act.
So that like Minister Imbert, I am convinced that if drivers
and pedestrians obey the laws, the traffic situation would
be eased tremendously.
For instance, if cars did not stop in front of a green traffic
light to let off passengers, we would proceed more quickly.
If pedestrians did not cross the road when vehicles have the
green light, as they do at City Gate traffic lights, the traffic
jam in that vicinity would be greatly reduced.
In fact, in that area pedestrians block cars that have the
green light waiting on other cars to allow them to pass. No
one seems to recognise that pedestrians are actually supposed
to cross when the lights permit them to do so.
In more developed countries, road users obey the crossing
lights, but in T&T we have no time with that.
Minister Imbert has signalled his intention to have the traffic
laws enforced. This is an ironic statement, as it almost suggests
that there was a deliberate decriminalisation of traffic offences
in recent times.
By this I mean that while traffic offences remained in law,
there was a policy of non-enforcement. In reality, of course,
we all know that persons are given tickets and do appear before
the courts on traffic charges.
The “ticket” laws
The fact is, however, that many persons do not pay their tickets,
and attempts to enforce the “ticket” laws take almost
as long as regular cases.
Insofar as charges under the road traffic legislation are
concerned, it appears that only if there is a motor vehicle
accident that these are initiated.
What, really, is the problem with law enforcement? It is a
scientifically-proven fact that if one establishes order in
society, if one deals with “small crimes” such as
begging, traffic and truancy, then the serious crimes will
drop.
This is how crime was tackled successfully in New York and
California, and testimony of the success is in the “broken
windows” theory.
It postulates that the populace will respond to the re-establishment
of order in their society by developing trust in the system
and the police, and this will lead to detection and prevention
of crime.
It also is premised on the basis that dealing with the “order”
crimes prevents their spiralling into more serious crimes.
Persons who may not be morally grounded on obeying the law
will commit order crimes if they can get away with it, and
eventually move onto more serious crimes.
Focussing on dealing with such crimes could nip the escalation
of criminal behaviour in the wider society.
I hope that the police respond favourably to the suggestion
by Minister Imbert and make an all out attack on breaches
of the traffic law.
If this happens and order is restored on the roads of T&T,
it will not only make a lot of commuters happy, but will certainly
impact on crime control in general.
