PoS needs innovative parking solutions

The resumption of wrecking in downtown Port-of-Spain this past week has resulted in the usual outcry about the inconvenience and ineffectiveness of the measure. The loudest complaints have been coming from members of the city’s business community, who claim it is driving away shoppers.

It is notable that over the many years of Port-of-Spain’s steady descent into traffic congestion and indiscriminate parking, successive city administrations have resorted to the same tried and failed strategy — wrecking.

Mayor Chinua Alleyne, now 16 months into his tenure at the Port-of-Spain City Corporation helm, is, unfortunately, following his predecessors’ playbooks as he attempts to steer the city out of its parking woes.

Like them, he is unlikely to produce any measurable results from the return of wreckers. The measure serves only to turn parking on the city’s streets into a cat-and-mouse game, with motorists taking chances to park illegally, so there is hardly any relief from traffic, which is what the measure is intended to alleviate.

A few days before the measure was reintroduced, Mayor Alleyne said the resumption of parking enforcement was intended to ensure good egress from the city in the event of an emergency.

However, while the wreckers have been operating in downtown Port-of-Spain and Ariapita Avenue and environs, at a $500 penalty for every motorist whose vehicle gets towed, T&T’s capital remains as congested and user-unfriendly as ever. Cars are still parked on both sides of streets, available parking facilities are operating at maximum and there is still the daily frustration for the approximately 200,000 people who enter the city every day to work and conduct business.

Wrecking simply does not work and the only tangible benefits from it seem to be fees collected by the wrecker operators. It is, therefore, time to explore other solutions to the city’s perennial traffic and parking woes.

At his swearing-in ceremony in August 2023, Mayor Alleyne was challenged by Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley to take steps to alleviate Port-of-Spain’s worsening parking problems. He called for the streets of the city to be managed with modern parking meters and warned: “If you end this term without parking meters in the city of Port-of-Spain, you would have failed in my book.”

As the nation’s retail, administrative and political centre, there is a need for innovative methods to manage parking and other traffic issues. If current trends continue, the threat of declining commercial activity, with all of the accompanying economic and social fallout, could be exacerbated.

Stakeholders, particularly business operators, have been warning about the death of Port-of-Spain, noting the parking problem could be a major contributor to this decline.

Before the situation gets much worse, the City Corporation should begin exploring smart parking technologies and systems. Parking can be automated and ­digitised with fees paid on a phone app for ease of use by motorists. These systems are already in operation in hundreds of cities.

Along with technological solutions, other measures that should be explored include building more parking facilities and the introduction of a reliable transit system that could include park-and-ride facilities supported by a reliable inner city bus service.

These are just some options Mayor Alleyne and his team should consider instead of defaulting to the old, outdated wrecking arrangement. A modern Port-of-Spain is only possible with the introduction of 21st-century operating systems.

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