by Linda Straker
- There are over 60,000 vehicles on Grenada’s roads
- Number of private vehicles for personal use is not sustainable for island’s road infrastructure and environment
- Rolling back should not affect vehicles that are used for commuting passengers
Government is to embark on an initiative that will result in a reduction of the number of private vehicles for personal use on the roads because, according to Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, who is also Minister of Transportation, “It is not sustainable to have the number of private vehicles we have the road, and for this purpose, I am distinguishing between private and public, not who owns the vehicle but the use toward the vehicle is put,” he said why explaining that the rolling back should not affect vehicles that are used for commuting passengers.
“We are not talking about those… we are talking about vehicles that are used solely for the private benefit of the owner, which is invariably a car or a pickup or an SUV, and the challenge we have here is that the number of vehicles we have in Grenada has grown exponentially.
“We have over 60,000 vehicles on the road. If we inflate our population a bit and say we have 120,000, it means that we have a vehicle for every 2 persons on the island. That is just not sustainable,” he said.
“It is not sustainable because our road infrastructure cannot handle it, and vehicles like all other machines, have a shelf life, and when the shelf life comes to an end, what happens,” he said pointing out that some of the vehicles are abandoned on the side of the roads and the government must do the cleaning up.
“What we are seeking to do is to encourage a system where… we do not waste our resources and wasting of our resources includes our private vehicles. As a citizen, if you find yourself buying a private vehicle simply because the public transport system cannot meet your needs, it means you are probably making a decision that you will not want to make,” he said.
“It means you are going to spend a lot of money simply trying to maintain that vehicle, insure that vehicle, pray to God it does not meet in an accident just so you can get to point A or to point B,” said the Minister of Transportation, who believes instead of investing in a vehicle, citizens should invest in education or business.
“Oftentimes those resources could be put towards better things that you can invest in, like education, house, business, etc. The idea is that the more we can have a public transportation system that moves people en masse, where one vehicle can move more people, it’s a more efficient system. The cost for the system becomes lower and the carbon footprint becomes lower,” he said.
There need to be a more frequent means of transport between Grenville and Munich. Sometimes the wait is hours. Some investment in helping the local driver is needed. Also education in best means to manage their service. There are some good and polite drivers on this route. Help them as it is not cost effective at times in the week. We wait for buses to be filled to capacity before we embark on our jouney. I have not got the solution. But something must be done to improve this transport area. I want to get a car for that reason alone also for convenience in the evenings and sundays.