kevon.felmine@guardian.co.tt
Commuters between San Fernando, Freeport and Chaguanas, could now find themselves walking in the rain along highways as some taxi drivers refuse to veer down the ramps at interchanges.
It comes as the Ministry of Works and Transport erected signs at the Freeport, Chase Village and Munroe Road interchanges that restricts vehicles from driving straight across the ramps between 6 am to 9 am.
It means drivers have to turn onto the adjacent roadways in the early morning traffic congestion.
At a media conference in San Fernando yesterday, president of the Taxi Drivers’ Network Adrian Acosta said a short drive off the ramp could cost drivers up to 20 minutes to return to the Solomon Hochoy and Uriah Butler Highways.
Acosta said the police patrol the ramps on mornings, enforcing this law on taxis but not the Public Transport Service Corporation (PTSC) buses, which provides the same service as they do. He said the drivers’ were unaware and did not notice the signs at first. They realised the ministry erected signs through traffic groups on WhatsApp.
Police issued tickets to several of them as they worked for a day’s pay. The drivers called on the ministry to permit them to drive ahead on the ramps as the restriction affects their trade.
“At the end of the day, we are self-employed, and time is money for us. When you are telling us that we have to go down inside traffic to come back out in traffic, we find that very disruptive to our work. It is unfair for the government to put something in place, and one side of the transportation industry is profiting from it, and the other one is being sidelined,” Acosta said.
President of the San Fernando to Curepe Taxi Drivers’ Association David Mack said passengers also complained that going into the traffic makes them late for work.
Drivers are reversing into people’s yards and making u-turns to get back onto the highways. He described the traffic as horrendous, and if one accident occurs anywhere between Gasparillo and Freeport, it results in gridlock.
“It is especially in Freeport and Chase Village because we have passengers who drop short, and if we have to go down without being able to go across, it will take us a long while to go into traffic and come back. Plus, it will annoy people.
“Think of yourself as a passenger heading to Curepe, especially if you are late for work, and when we go down to make that round, it actually keeps us back some more,” Mack said.
He said the minister could also mitigate the traffic issues by dedicating a lane on the highways to public transportation and people with filled vehicles. He said they could also use part of the shoulder during peak hours.
Acosta said the Network would launch a taxi service in the coming months. It will allow people to get legitimate taxis via an app to take them to and from their destinations. He said this was unlike other companies, which illegally use private vehicles.