High-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lanes and a local water ferry service are two of the ideas being put forward to help ease traffic congestion on the island’s busy roads.
Head of the Town and Country Development Planning Office, Mark Cummins, said they are hoping to see such developments taking place in Barbados within the next three years, but certainly within the next five. The Chief Town Planner’s comments came as he contended that as the island’s already dense road network, at 1 500 kilometres, does not allow for the soon to be completed amendments to the Physical Development Plan (PDP) to include the provision of new roads, alternatives have to be put forward and employed.
In fact, he told The Barbados Advocate that the Ministry of Transport and Works (MTW) has shown enthusiasm and excitement towards the HOV lane idea, and so they have been encouraged to get the Wildey to Warrens HOV lane up and running as soon as possible.
“There is no need for new roads, all we would require is the demarcation as to which lane is the HOV, and the necessary police presence to make sure that single-occupant vehicles do not go into it. If you go into that lane as a single driver, or you only have one other person in the car, you would have to pay a very high penalty. The idea is to encourage persons to pool up, and to utilise the HOV lane during peak hours to move large numbers of persons quickly, as opposed to moving large numbers of cars slowly,” he explained.
Cummins added, “The beautiful thing about it is that the law allows for the policies within a plan [Physical Development Plan] in preparation, to be implemented. As long as we get the buy in from the Ministry of Transport, and as I said before, I think we have it, they can start to roll out some of those things.”
In respect of the HOV lanes, the Chief Town Planner (CTP) explained that in addition to promoting the idea of carpooling, in the first instance, they are also suggesting that a park-and-ride system be introduced. He said that the 2007 Cricket World Cup is proof that such a system can work, but he acknowledged that in order to get it going successfully on a daily basis, persons would have to be assured that when they park their vehicles “nice motorised transport” would be provided to get them to their destinations.
“We cannot have so many cars on the roads bumper to bumper on mornings; it is not the best for our air quality. We are not saying persons should not own cars because that is a personal choice, all we are saying is that we have to provide options. There is not going to be a law to say you have to park-and-ride, it is an option,” the CTP indicated.
He further stated, “Just imagine persons driving to the public carpark at Oistins for instance, 75 of them getting into a coach and driving down the road, automatically that takes those cars off the road. That’s an area where the infrastructure is already, and it can accommodate 150 to 200 vehicles. The Garfield Sobers Gymnasium is another area where you can probably park another 300 or 400 cars; persons drive there, get into the coach and on to their destination.”
With that in mind, he maintained that a lot of public education will be need to get Barbadians’ buy-in, but he is confident that once they see it in action and they realise there are economic and social benefits to the either carpooling or utilising the park-and-ride system, persons will get on board.
“Another innovative transportation measure we have looked at is driving to Oistins, Holetown and Speightstown, getting on a ferry and heading to Bridgetown. We have a strong relation to the beach, going to the beach and relaxing at the beach, but we also have a fear of water, so that one is going to take a lot of education, and of course enterprising entrepreneurs. But it has a lot of potential, whereby we can move a lot of people by waterway; and the historians tell us that is what happened before.”
Cummins further suggested that the timing of the work on the PDP has been perfect, as the MTW is currently working on the strategic plan for the transport sector, which has allowed them to draw on each other’s ideas. (JRT)