Development for Vehicles Vs. Human Space

Port of Spain sidewalk- photo by Esther Davis

   When someone looks at this picture what do you think is the first thing that stands out? Most likely it would be the high rise urban architecture in the background or the long stretched road. But what about the side walk in the picture or the tree in the background that shows a small piece of nature incorporated in a city based on urban development and concrete structures. Do present day urban developmental planners plan for the preservation of human space? Or is the development of the world centered around cars.  

    Cars and other forms of transport have made life more convenient the average person. According to urban designer Zachary Shahan,"The car has somehow become inseparably linked to the concept of freedom." People are able to access places longer distances away, in shorter periods of time with the use of this technology. But with the growth of cities and  growth of the population of cities the number of cars increases. More persons own cars privately because of the convenience it offers. This increase in the number of cars within an urban area however leads to the need for more space for these vehicles. Urban planners and architects in turn design and build more large highway systems and parking structures to facilitate of these cars.
          The Human Scale 2013, directed by Andreas Mol Dalsgaard is a documentary about architects and urban planners where they discuss ways to increase human interaction. In this documentary it is mentioned that "cities have been planned for cars not people." An example of this is in the article Land for Vehicles or people by Todd Litman. In the article the author mentions that in the USA "in automobile dependent communities with road and parking supply sufficient to keep traffic congestion to the level typical in U.S cities, plus parking spaces at most destinations, a city must devote between 2000 and 4000 square feet of land to roads and off-street parking per automobile.With this large amount of space required to accommodate cars and this space requirements increasing with the increasing number of cars what can be said for the space within smaller countries like Trinidad. Small side walks and little to no places in urban areas where people can spend time socializing and enjoying recreation are results of this.   

  "What is the future of our public space?" The shortage and inequity in the distribution of urban open space are symptomatic of larger transformations of public space" Banerjee (2001). Upon visiting the city of Port of Spain and walking to the Water taxi terminal I realized that there was very little open public space for people to walk. While crossing the highway I had to stand on a small concrete block in order to be safely away from the moving traffic on either side while I waited to get to the other side of the road. Along the stretch to the terminal I found my self walking around obstacles such as lamp posts and street signs.Looking at the picture you can clearly see the inequality in the distribution of space being depicted. The design of the road infrastructure within the capital city consist of four lanes for vehicles driving in one direction. While the sidewalk is only designed for about two people to walk comfortably side by side at the same time. Obstacles such as bus stops, fire hydrants and a number of others are placed on the sidewalks by private companies taking away from what little public space we have access to. What about people suffering from disabilities or injuries that have taken away there ability to walk, where is the public space to facilitate for these persons located? If urban developers do not start taking into consideration the value of human space, human spaces in urban areas will be lost. Cities need to be developed around human needs first since it is we that inhabit these cities.
"All architectural are human values, else not valuable at all," Frank Lloyd Wright.

FOR MORE INFORMATION ON  CARS VS HUMAN SPACE CHECK OUT 

http://www.planetizen.com/node/72454/land-vehicles-or-people

OR

http://www.theamericanconservative.com/articles/cities-for-people-or-cars/

Reference:

Banerjee, T. (2001). The Future of Public Space "Beyond Invented Streets and Reinvented Places" Journal of American Planning Association, 67(1), 9.

Urban Water Transportation

                                               The Port of Spain Ferry Terminal- Photo by Esther Davis

Brief History of the Ferry Service

  In 1901 the Government of Trinidad and Tobago signed a contract with Britain’s Royal Mail Steam Packet Company establishing the ‘Government Shipping Service. Back in the 1900’s transportation was not as advanced as it is today and the Piarco International Airport did not yet exist making the shipping service the only means of transportation between these two islands.The government purchased their first vessel the SS Belize in 1924 and this steam ship ran for years till 1929.

   In 1930 the SS Tobago was purchased and later that year the SS Trinidad. These vessels could hold a total of 384 passengers and accommodate for 488 tons of cargo. These vessels took over for the SS Belize and operated until 1957, approximately 27 years. These vessels made a Port of Spain to Scarborough run on a weekly basis. The SS Tobago and Trinidad were replaced by roll on roll off vessels after completing their service. The ‘Scarlet Ibis’ and ‘the Bird of Paradise’ (Roll on/roll off vessels) served for 25 years. A number of other ferries were introduced over years.

Finally the introduction of fast ferries came in 2005 and Trinidad and Tobago got the Cat and the Lynx. The passenger capacity of these vessels were an impressive 850 people compared to the capacity of previously operated ferries. On 27^th of December 2006, the Port Authority commissioned the first National ferry renamed the T&T Express and 25^th July 2007 the second ferry was commissioned and named the T&T Spirit. These vessels currently operate to this day.

Water Taxi Terminal located in Port of Spain

In 2008, the use of sea transportation was no longer intended to only be used as transport between the two islands(Trinidad &Tobago) but now also as a means of transportation to and from the urban cities. The Government of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago formally introduced the Water Taxi Service. The introduction of the water taxi was intended for citizens of Trinidad as well as Tourists to have an alternative means of transportation. The taxi service was geared towards operating along the North-South Corridor (Point Fortin to Diego Martin) and along the East-West Corridor. Persons can purchase tickets at any two of the water taxi terminals located at Flatrock, San Fernando, and at the Cruise Ship Complex, Port-of-Spain for only $15. The Government of Trinidad and Tobago plans for construction and future expansion of the service with plans to place terminals in the following locations, Chaguanas (Waterloo/Orange Valley), Point Fortin, and Point Cumana.

In 1968 the Government of Trinidad removed the railway passenger system and began the use of maxi taxis, buses and other motor vehicles as modes of transportation available to the public. According to (Rojas 1989) "..traffic congestion and the like, are problems currently present only to a minimum extent in the main urban areas in the Eastern Caribbean." But with the growing human population and increasing number of vehicles on the road ways over the last 48 years, these problems can no longer be referred to as minimum in 2016. Due to this the Government implemented the Water Taxi service with the intentions of reducing traffic congestion within the urban cities and this initiative has been successful to an extent.

The picture below shows the traffic congestion in the City of Port of Spain on a Saturday afternoon. It was taken at this angle because you can see the water taxi terminal located in the background of the image. It gives a contrast between both modes of transportation and the advancements of transport. The picture also highlights one of the problems that Rojas mentioned existing in urban areas and the water taxi service being a management strategy to help reduce and control the issue. Do you feel that the Water Taxi Service has assisted in reducing traffic congestion in urban areas?  What do you think about the advancements in transport within the urban areas in Trinidad?

For more information on the history of Trinidad and Tobago's Ferry Service please check out the link below.

https://ttitferry.com/vessels.php?mid=38

Reference:
"Human Settlements of the Eastern: Development Problems and Policy Options." Cities 6. no.3 (1989): 248-253.

THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF MODERN TRANSPORT

THE NEGATIVE IMPACTS OF MODERN TRANSPORT

Traffic on the Churchill Roosevelt (Photo Esther Davis)

    The use of road transportation in Trinidad boomed in the 1950's when the Trinidad Government Railway (TGR) was beginning the process of disbandment. With the removal of the passenger rail system in 1968, the government began the utilization of the bus and maxi services with the same purpose of transporting large crowds of passengers to their destinations. The only difference between the trains is that road vehicles can manage high grades that trains, which requires a tunnel though a hill or mountain for access.

     However, as decades past, more persons began to purchase and drive their motor vehicles on the highways. The highways in the past, being a single two way road, making congestion all too common, therefore the highways were upgraded to dual carriageways. Although it relived the congestion at that time, it was not long term as presently, traffic persists on the nation’s highways. Although government proposes new routes and upgrading of existing road networks, it still does not solve the problem. We must go to the root of the problem, and that is there are too many motor vehicles that the road system can accommodate. Even if the highways are expanded to have more lanes, with the increase of motor vehicles on the roads, these upgrades would be meaningless.  

       

    There should be measures in order to reduce the congestion of the nation’s roads, such as utilizing and improving the public bus services, in that more buses should be purchased to accommodate the population, maintenance of the buses and improved time scheduling. Another measure would be the implementation toll installations on the highways, in that persons driving private cars would have to pay a fare to use the highway system depending on the number of persons in the vehicle while buses, utilized by the Public Transport Services Corporation (PTSC), would freely pass through. Recently, the Government gave the commencement of the construction of the Rapid rail project. This project has the ability of greatly reducing the congestion of traffic on the nation’s roads as trains can accommodate more passengers than a normal bus, to its destination in the shortest amount of time. It can be a success if the previous measures are implemented and when the local economy improves after we overcome the implication of low oil prices.



Reflection
 The photos were taken while travelling to the capital city of Port of Spain on the Churchill Roosevelt highway. While sitting in the traffic it seemed like taking a photo of the congestion on both sides of the highway would make for a wonderful blog post on the ways in which the modernization of transport can impact negatively on society. 

Trinidad Government Railway - The Ballard of Rail Transport in Trinidad

TGR No.24 at Pointe a Pierre en route to siparia.

Engine "D" at Port of Spain Museum

Many of the country’s generation never knew that at one time, trains operated throughout the country.  The Trinidad Government Railway consisted of over 120 miles of standard gauge rail which ran from Port of Spain to Arima and Sangre Grande in the East (the line between Arima and Sangre Grande was closed in the early 1950s) and to the southwest to San Fernando and to Rio Claro along the Caparo Valley line with the famous Knolly’s Tunnel. The Rail system comprised of 27 standard gauge locomotives which included 18 steam and 9 diesel locomotives.
In the mid-1800s the railway was introduced into the southern areas of the country with the primary purpose of transporting sugarcane, which was the main product produced in Trinidad, to the sugar factories. Over the years, the railway started to diversify into transporting other products and passengers. In 1876, the Trinidad Government Railway (T.G.R.) was established and rail lines were laid throughout the country to the East at Arima and Sangre Grande and to the South at San Fernando and Rio Claro. With the railway stations located at most major towns, many of these towns such as Chaguanas, Couva and Penal became heavily populated and heavily urbanized overtime as products and passengers were transported throughout the country at a fairly cheap price. With oil being heavily produced in the 1940s, diesel locomotives began arriving into Trinidad, mostly having the task of hauling sugarcane from the field stations to the factories of Brechin Castle in Couva and Usaine St. Madeline in South Trinidad.
By the 1950s and 1960s with the introduction of the motor vehicle, which had advantages over train locomotives and that the railway company was making deficits due to high maintenance and running costs, the rail lines were gradually closing down. It started with the line between Arima and Sangre Grande in the early 1950s. It continued into 1965 when the Southern lines were closed down. On August 30th 1965, a steam locomotive, TGR No.27 hauled “The Last Train to San Fernando” on that faithful evening. By 1968, the only line running under the T.G.R. was from Port of Spain to Arima. On December 31st 1968, the last T.G.R. train rolled into Port of Spain and with that, the Trinidad Government Railway was officially disbanded.
Although the TGR was disbanded, trains continued running under Tate and Lyle Sugar Company and Caroni (1975) when the latter took over operations. The trains continued hauling sugarcane from the fields to factory. In 1976, the rail lines around the Brechin Castle factory was closed down. On May 15th 1998, almost 30 years since the T.G.R. was disbanded, the last 20 miles of track around Usaine St. Madeline factory, and in Trinidad, was closed.
Today, remnants of the former rail system live on as static attractions like the 4 diesel locomotives at the Sugar Heritage Museum on the grounds of the Brechin castle factory in Couva, the steam locomotives at the Port of Spain Museum and Harris Promenade in San Fernando. The Knolly’s Tunnel near Tabaquite is one of a very few railway infrastructure that remains in Trinidad.

There are several videos that highlight the Trinidad railway:

1. Video showcases the train in action in Penal in 1957 for the construction of the power station there. Courtesy of oldtimecalypso on youtube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkKadjfMlgw&nohtml5=False

2. This video highlights the Last Train to San Fernando in 1965. Courtesy of Glen Beadon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sdkz-rZs3s0&ebc=ANyPxKpc24bGpZJ_5Q7tdALEZVaBkoGOalX1Q_5BlOVgG-h8ki7Wy0QAbEk09YciAcdL851zwQc_15Ib-sXTK2mrc3COPJWjNQ&nohtml5=False

Glen Beadon is a Trinidad- born railway researcher who studies various railways including the trains in Trinidad.
Link:https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4v8c_acdg-sN88QxOrD6aA?nohtml5=False

Reflection:
The reason that this picture of the locomotive was taken at this angle was because, in my opinion would show the transition of transport from the past to present. Due to renovations taking place at the museum, tents were constructed thus blocking the background of the roadways. However if we decided to remove these tents, we can clearly see the maxi stand in the background. This shows transition between the past, with the locomotive and the present transport system. It is quite surprising that the engine has the number 42 when in fact the name of the train was called Engine "D".

Reference: http://www.trinidadexpress.com/news/Story-of-the-tracks-to-Siparia-270697891.html