As I walk along the roadside, a friend stops her car, rolls down the window and asks me: "Are you mad?" It's not an unreasonable question, considering I am walking on the roadway of Saddle Road in Maraval. There is no sidewalk. The only way to walk is to stick to the extreme side of the road, and stay out of the way of the relentless stream of crawling vehicles. I explain to my friend that I am walking for enjoyment. She concludes: "You are mad," and crawls on, much to the relief of traffic-jammed commuters behind her.
Saddle Road is typical of the traffic arteries that connect Port-of-Spain with her suburbs. It's a congested road with disjointed segments of pavement. There is barely enough room for cars, none for cyclists. Walking on the pavement must be done with caution. Manhole covers are missing. The pavement was engineered so that every couple of yards there's a big dip where driveways are and sometimes the pavement inexplicably just ends.
This is an urban obstacle course. That's probably the reason why I rarely meet anybody else walking the route. If there are pedestrians, they are usually just people waiting for a private taxi. It is difficult to ignore that some of these commuters are so impossibly obese that you wonder how they fit three-across on the backseat of a foreign-used pulling bull. Maybe if they walked a bit more? But then, oh yeah, there is no sidewalk.
Port-of-Spain is not a large city. The suburbs of Laventille, Morvant, Cascade, St Ann's, Maraval and Diego Martin are mostly within a 10 km radius of Independence Square. That distance can be easily cycled in half an hour provided there are dedicated and safe bike paths. Shorter distances, say from home to the supermarket, are usually no more than one or two km for most people.
The benefits of foot and bicycle paths would be tremendous. Better use of time, increased health, decreased waist lines and improved mental health. After all, exercise releases feel-good endorphins that help beat depression. It goes to show that a city's infrastructure not only determines how we travel but it also shapes our bodies. But more than that, a city's infrastructure can also influence our minds, our moods, have an effect on crime, marital happiness, divorce rates and even determine how long we live.
The daily commute can last an hour or more. Sometimes much more. During this commute we are confronted with boredom, a feeling of helplessness, aggression, dangerous road conditions like unexpected potholes and dangling telephone lines. Commuting is stressful and it takes its toll on us.
Here's how it works. A 2012 report published in the American Journal of Preventative Medicine by Christine M Hoehner and colleagues from the Washington University School of Medicine in St Louis and the Cooper Institute in Dallas, found that long commutes (ie in T&T: being stuck in traffic) is linked to an increased risk of early cardiovascular death, higher BMI, high blood pressure, an increased risk of developing high blood sugar and high cholesterol. The researchers also linked long commutes to anxiety, social isolation and depression.
A 2015 Oxford University study led by Seena Fazel found that people who are diagnosed with depression are three times as likely to commit violent crimes including homicide and domestic abuse. I in no way want to stigmatise depressed people as being violent offenders, I myself have suffered from bouts of depression, but the data is significant.
What do you think, is there any possibility that our extreme murder rate is linked to our extreme traffic congestion? Do you remember Dennison Rodney who was shot ten times in a road rage incident in Diego Martin in 2014? In 2016 a man in Chaguanas smashed the windows of a vehicle with a garden hoe. Now think of all the tragedies that happen when irate, tired traffic-jammed commuters come home and shut the door...
This brings me to a Swedish study from Umea University in 2011 that found that couples in which one partner commutes more than 45 minutes are 40 per cent more likely to suffer a divorce. The endless lines of traffic lead directly to the revolving doors of divorce lawyers and family court. Consider that women initiate 70 per cent of divorces, according to a 2015 study by Michael Rosenfeld, associate professor of sociology at Stanford University.
Link that fact to research by Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman and Princeton economist Allan Krueger. In 2006 they asked 900 Texan women how much they enjoy common activities. Having sex came first, socialising second. Dead last came commuting. A happy wife is not a woman stuck in traffic. The evidence is overwhelming. Traffic congestion affects every single aspect of our lives negatively. Using any method to reduce commute time is needed and will necessarily include mass transportation but bicycle and footpaths must be a part of that investment in a healthy, happy, mobile society.
