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Let's Car Pool! - Page 2

I was going to ask if we realistically can compare road conditions, infrastructure, etc of the US or Canada to Trinidad and Tobago? We are speaking about a tiny island here. Car pooling without the road conditions in place is silly.

Pool Car Lets

Car pooling does help though not a complete solution on its own. JB is very correct, urban sprawl and downtown growth I think in most cities just occurs then suddenly the town goes oops we for got about roads. Even with the massive road structures in the Greater Toronto area they are far from sufficient. We are lucky that there is large lands in this country, but in the metro areas the land is already developed. Car pooling helps a lot but better public transit is also required....Subways in the metro areas helps to move enormous amounts of people. But how do you get from the subway to your work place? Bus is that not one of the biggest car pools going? Being unfamiliar with the islands it is hard to judge how much car pooling would really help. I will just have to think the one car vs 4 is better though far from perfect. One solution to small two lane roads is to dedicate more roads to a one way road system and encourage car pooling and use of the public transit (assuming it is safe to do so.).

In Toronto one of the biggest encouragements a driver has for car poling is the cost of fuel and parking.

Let's Car Pool! Caribbean / Tobago & Trinidad

Krakyn, the best way to envision how it is here is to picture this:

Imagine taking the road outside your home, which is probably built for two cars to pass in a residential area, and take some paint and divide it into three. Then next to your home I put some very tall apartment complexes housing thousands of people. Now, imagine it is 7:00am and it is time for everyone to go to work on your street and you can understand what we are dealing with here.

Page 2 Pool Car Lets

Sound much like Burlington. Do city planners really think very far into the future or just to where they retire and leave town.

Pool Car Lets

Krakyn, first we have to find out if any thinking takes place, then we can move on to what they actually think about. Okay to be correct. This is how I think it goes down... Town & Country Planning and the Ministry of Works & Transport sit down with proposed plans to put up 'x' buildings. The planners say "no way", the Ministry says, "our roads can't handle it", but the Prime Minister comes in an says, "make it so" (because he wants big business and tax dollars) and walla, big buildings are going up. Car pooling is one of those 'neat' little ideas that will not work. The idea they have here is for five people to jump in your car and go to the city. Trinis like to lime, but when it comes to getting to work they do not tend to mix matters and will often try to out maneuver you on the road just to be one car length ahead. Why will they waste time worrying about picking up five people before they get to work.

Let's Car Pool!

Well I for one don't have a problem picking up a friend or neighbor who is going my way in the morning and/or the way back home but to mandate it by law or even to say encourage it by rewarding it goes a bit for me. Not all Trinis like people in their cars though, so that is why this system may not work here. Who knows maybe with the increase in Premium Gas some people may actually pool now. Stranger things have happened.

Let's Car Pool! - Page 2

Trying to be first in line leaving late sound pretty much like here and is the major leading cause of death in a motor accident. Car pooling does work but you have to brainwash the masses into it over 10 years or so. Rewards do help like lane for cars with multi passengers only.

I have no issue giving any one a ride but they getter be ready as I am not waiting on them, especially if I ma picking them up at their door. Car pool lot I can give time for traffic. It is a hard thing to do though and does take understadning to keep a pool healthy.

Let's Car Pool! Trinidad & Tobago / Caribbean - Page 2

Trinidad roads are small, even our highways are no more than three lanes wide in one direction in some parts and to top it off we have some real jerks here who use the shoulder as another lane. So putting a lane for car poolers will not work here. Yes you did say

but I think we have to brainwash those idiots to drive properly first. The majority of our accidents are a result of excessive speeding and silly driving. Can you imagine a car losing control and ending up on the other side of the highway and in the process killing an innocent person(s). It has happened too often here. Back to the car pooling idea. I am not in support of it being mandated or even encouraged. If someone wants to car pool with his neighbours or friends, then go ahead, that's how some of us are. I think though that the idea of car pooling is to reduce the number of cars on the road. Here in Trinidad we just want physically less cars on the road, not any noble idea like socializing or saving the environment by less car emissions and so forth. We want less cars because to put it bluntly we don't have enough roads to accommodate the number of cars we have. All this stems down though because people complained that the public transport system totally sucks here. Government introduced the foreign used cars concept to people and because it was much cheaper to buy a brand new used car, people rushed and bought them up in droves (and still continue to do). Now we have too many cars people are complaining about traffic... geeze it just goes to show you that you can never please everyone at the same time. I wonder how many people with these foreign used cars will be willing to give it up so that they can be less cars on the roads.