Lady on her way to work in the City
There are two arguments for when using
public transportation to enter and exit the city get in and out of the city.
The first is that Firstly public transportation it is cheaper than buying a
car. This may be true due to the fact that cars require some form of upfront
capital to purchase the car, heavy maintenance, gas or diesel and insurance.
However, the other argument for using public transport is that you do not have
to bother about finding a car park space when you travel to the city. Nevertheless,
the main reason for taking public transport into and from the city is because
of the heavy expense of owning private transportation. According to Cherry-Ann
Rapsad, he high price of vehicles in Trinidad is the main reason for the
dependence on public transportation. Although in the previous blog it was
mentioned that there are more private vehicles on the road the price of
vehicles is still quite unaffordable to the average person living in the city
or who have to travel city daily for work.
According Ms. Parsad there are
other priorities on which to spend money; for instance school fees for
children, groceries, rent etc. She went on to say that the distance lives from
her work place which is the city is an
encouragement to invest in a car. Even so, the initial capital needed to attain
a car is too much. Kain and Meyer (2001) state that immobility is a
disadvantage of the poor and hence improving such mobility increase job
opportunities and by extension self-sufficiency.
According to the Trinidad Car Sales Catalogue
(Trinidad Autobook) (2016) the cheapest price for a car in Trinidad is roughly
about $50,000.00 TT. This price is well over the budget of many city dwellers
and persons who make a humble living in small stores in the city as Ms Parsad
does. Transportation is based on efficiency and fairness, according to Moore
and Pulidindi (2004). Moore and Pulidindi believe that persons take the public
transportation because it provides “bang for your buck” meaning the service the
public transport system provides is economical (efficiency). They also believe
that fairness is a major determinant of how many persons utilise public
transportation. They believe that those who opt to take public transportation
see it as using what their taxes papers dollars pay for as public
transportation is subsidised for patrons.
Ms.
Parsad also mention the racial divide that is evident on the cities’ public
transport networks. The majority of patrons using public transport in and out
of both Port of Spain and San Fernando by observation were of African descent.
She stated that in her opinion the majority of Indo-Trinidadians used private
moods of transportation. This was especially the case for San Fernando as the
majority of residents and who appeared to be working in the city were of
Indo-Trinidadian descent. This seemed less heavily dependent on public
transportation than Port of Spain. The Indo-Trinidadian population living in or
working in both Port of Spain and San Fernando tend being in higher income bracket
than those of Afro-Trinidadian descent.
Sources:
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