Study finds Trinis spend avg one month each year in traffic

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

The United Nations ECLAC study released at the end of 2023 found:

Vehicle traffic congestion imposes a direct economic burden of roughly 1.37 per cent of annual GDP on T&T.

The direct economic cost for traffic congestion in T&T was estimated at $2.26 billion for 2021

Trinis each spend on average 793 hours each year in traffic. That’s 33 days each year.

Commuters spent an average of $1,037 every month on fuel/bus or taxi fares.

https://caribbean.eclac.org/information ... obago-2023

https://www.guardian.co.tt/business/tra ... de19040e72

[ProtonPowder]

Makes sense once you realise that people on the north-south commute spend 2-3 hours going north on a morning to get to work, and another 2-3 hours coming back southbound on an evening to the tune of tens of thousands of people every day.

Even people who have it 'good' spend 20-30 mins commuting one way to and from work and school.

We need so many more mass transit options, things that use the roads like PTSC buses and others that dont, like the water taxis.

[VII]

What a depressing existence being a Trini is becoming.. I always knew that something wasn't right on our roads, not to mention the phantom jams caused by nothing but bad road design, bad traffic light management etc and other less than obvious annoyances . No one focuses on fixing anything in this place, everything's broken.. even simply getting around daily .

[Chimera]

What a depressing existence being a Trini is becoming.. I always knew that something wasn't right on our roads, not to mention the phantom jams caused by nothing but bad design and other less than obvious annoyances . No one focuses on fixing anything in this place, everything's broken.. even simply getting around daily .

brother it take you a while but yuh finally getting real disenchanted with trini life

[VII]

Even these hardened Trini bones getting fed up..when you have to worry about your kids simply leaving home or even being home as young adults it hits differently.

When they were kids sure they were vulnerable but in a different and more manageable way...now they're just fair game... now add all of the above...

What a depressing existence being a Trini is becoming.. I always knew that something wasn't right on our roads, not to mention the phantom jams caused by nothing but bad design and other less than obvious annoyances . No one focuses on fixing anything in this place, everything's broken.. even simply getting around daily .

brother it take you a while but yuh finally getting real disenchanted with trini life

[Stoick]

I am glad such a study was done. I only hope it leads to some action to make things better for for people who have to commute.

Nevertheless, the Overall Average is just one statistic. It does not paint the whole picture. It takes just a few people who have short commutes to skew the results one way, ....and vice versa.

Also, it would be interesting to see what the average is for people in rural communities, or people who traverse the north-south highway, or the east west corridoor and highway... I would expect the numbers to be much greater.

For me, my calculations show my average may be closer to 50 days. I wouldn't be surprised if many others have much greater commute times.

I will tell you also, from my personal experience, that this also adversely affects your health and family life. I wonder what are the costs atributed to those?

[MaxPower]

People actually took time to study Trinis?

[shake d livin wake d dead]

Nobody won't suggest work from home (This worked during covid)

Decentralization

Mass transit outa the question because that is racket from start to finish

Ttps/License office add to this because money hada make....oh sheit sorry, crime fighting..

[16 cycles]

would be interesting to link to the subsidy when market price is
1. more than we pay at pump
2. less than we pay at pump

and see how those relate to more efficiency in the traffic network

[redmanjp]

How come 'Professionals' have it much worse than others ?

And they still wont allow work from home in most places private and public sector alike - and thats despite a 2 year dry run during covid!

[Dizzy28]

I have been driving to the West from Tunapuna since 2006. If its one thing I can say is traffic has gotten better for me in those 18 years. The full removal of the GB lights cut my commute in the morning and evenings in 1/2.

I feel like I live in a sweet spot for working in PoS. Far enough out to not be in the city but close enough to it to not be burdened with the heavy traffic further east. At this point and as long as I work PoS not even a free house would tempt me to live in Central or South.

I feel it for Central or South ppl though. They face level traffic sometimes for seemingly no reason.

[alfa]

My take on this work from home idea is while it was done successfully during the pandemic if you can work from home then someone from China or India can do your work from his home for a fraction of your salary. Scotia bank is doing it already as I called customer service recently and got put on to a CSR that had me feeling I was on zee tv. Needless to say I didn't continue the conversation.
Also I never realized the traffic situation was so bad. The advantage to living in south and working in the oil fields was a two minute commute for many years and now about 30 mins tops as I moved to a different branch. No traffic either way

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

What a depressing existence being a Trini is becoming.. I always knew that something wasn't right on our roads, not to mention the phantom jams caused by nothing but bad road design, bad traffic light management etc and other less than obvious annoyances . No one focuses on fixing anything in this place, everything's broken.. even simply getting around daily .

The phantom jams are real.
Any main road or road passing through a town or village is jammed up by cars stopping to turn right across the oncoming lane. Maxis and taxis stopping for passengers every 20ft. Cars coming out or going into side roads or parking spaces. DELIVERY TRUCKS that insist on operating during rush hour.

Not just time and money that the traffic situation is causing the country. There is a mental toll on the population too.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

I have been driving to the West from Tunapuna since 2006. If its one thing I can say is traffic has gotten better for me in those 18 years. The full removal of the GB lights cut my commute in the morning and evenings in 1/2.

I feel like I live in a sweet spot for working in PoS. Far enough out to not be in the city but close enough to it to not be burdened with the heavy traffic further east. At this point and as long as I work PoS not even a free house would tempt me to live in Central or South.

I feel it for Central or South ppl though. They face level traffic sometimes for seemingly no reason.

Yup. The sooner they remove UWI, Pasea, Macoya, Trincity and Piarco intersections for interchanges the better. They don’t even need to put interchanges at each. Pasea can go to Curepe or Macoya, Orange Grove can go down to Trincity or Macoya to get to the highway direction they need. Similar to what was done at El Socorro and Aranguez.

Then there is the bottleneck into POS/Wrightson rd.

[Mmoney607]

Maybe Mr Panday was short sighted in his decision to let people import foreign used cars lablash.

[Dizzy28]

Maybe Mr Panday was short sighted in his decision to let people import foreign used cars lablash.

Brand new cars have been outselling foreign used cars years now though.

[jhonnieblue]

Report won’t do anything sadly. New car sales could never be affected as financiers have money to make. There will never be political will to change to efficient mass transport systems. Until then, don’t care if you have a Mercedes or B12, waste your life in traffic

[zoom rader]

Scraping trains buying old iron in 1960s,

Well done Trinidad by listening to the car dealers to scrap Trains .

Jack arse Country

[redmanjp]

Report won’t do anything sadly. New car sales could never be affected as financiers have money to make. There will never be political will to change to efficient mass transport systems. Until then, don’t care if you have a Mercedes or B12, waste your life in traffic

its not so much car ownership but usage- u can still own a car but leave it home and take bus transit to/from work if we had reliable transport and use the car for leisure at night and on weekends. to reduce usage perhaps rush hour tolls could be implemented but again u have to provide a reliable alternative i.e. bus transit, decentralization (why so much ppl working in POS and living 2-3 hrs away?), and work for home arrangements! the only ppl who should be on the road is ppl who have children to drop to school and ppl who can't work from home- they do manual jobs not on a computer. everyone else wfh.

and we tried WFH for 2 years during the pandemic and traffic was good - but as covid begin to ease it was back to the status quo like we didnt learn nothing. less traffic means less frustration, gas, money for that gas, less carbon emissions, more productivity - ah mean why not do it? the ppl who think WFH is less productive probably live in the west 10-15 mins away from their work.

[MaxPower]

How much do Trinis litter a month?

How much money do Trinis spend on alcohol/junk food/liming/tobacco a month?

How much UNproductivity occurs on unnecessary holidays?

[zoom rader]

How much do Trinis litter a month?

How much money do Trinis spend on alcohol/junk food/liming/tobacco a month?

How much UNproductivity occurs on unnecessary holidays?

Hos and weed must run, ask Anil

[paid_influencer]

the solution really is better public transportation and walkable cities. everybody complaining sando have nowhere to park but sando was designed from the start to be accessed mainly by public transportation, not for everybody having a car. we had a train even. the traffic situation here clear up plenty tho since they shut down petrotrin. city like a ghost town now most days no traffic vote pnm

[DMan7]

That pic automatically assuming that everyone who was driving cars before will all of a sudden be lining up to take public transportation.

[paid_influencer]

That pic automatically assuming that everyone who was driving cars before will all of a sudden be lining up to take public transportation.

they should, cars are bad for the evnironment no point to cars

/ready for ban

[DMan7]

^ Lead from the front nah bai

[paid_influencer]

see dais d thing. Certain things only work when the whole community (in a communal way, community, communalist) comes together to say yes, this makes sense, everyone needs to do it for the benefit of everyone else in the commune.

If one man try to do it individually, there is no change. The infrastructure does not get created. the situation does not change. it is not a "free market" solution, indeed the free market is demonstratably unsustainable in this case (just look at the traffic).

[DMan7]

Be the change you want to see Paid. Change is infective, you'll see other people following you once you start this great cause of walking and taking busses everywhere that you'd typically use a car for.

[Duane 3NE 2NR]

Rain. Hot sun. Convenience. Safety.
Many reasons why people choose to pay for a car to go where they are going.
Cars are a status symbol in T&T.
Years ago an Irish guy tried to sell T&T on the idea of scooters saying that they are big in countries like Thailand and Malaysia.
That didn't fly here for the same reasons listed above.
If there were reliable public transport, not just buses and trains but taxis too.
Uber tried but were stopped by red tape.

Work from home and decentralization are real solutions that can be quickly implemented.

[redmanjp]

totally agree with decentralization- plenty ppl working in 1 small part of the west and living far. from it a scooter not going to get me to work if my commute is from arima or sando to POS. and of course wfh.

[Chimera]

Work from home and decentralization are real solutions that can be quickly implemented.

would never happen

that will kill POS and business in POS and other boroughs where government rents buildings from financiers and ministers family

if all the government offices move out of POS, pos would end up like mid center mall