Don’t Miss That School Bus!!!

Parents taking their little ones to school in terminal 

Don’t Miss That School Bus!!!

Busy Port of Spain on a Saturday exuberates an air of innocence as children travel from school with their doting parents or guardians and the brave few who travel on their lonesome. Port of Spain and San Fernando are the major points for persons travelling to and fro school. The fact that these cities are the major stops on almost all Trinidad bus routes explains why most persons have to pass through either of these cities to

According to Alexander (1990) highlights that the long distances travelled by children who go to small rural district schools results in the majority of their school budget is spent on transportation. Though there are school in these more rural areas the best schools are in the more urban areas, as more urban areas tend to have better services. Children going to school in more rural areas of Trinidad have to travel extremely far from their homes to go to the best schools in Port of Spain. According Ms. Francais and her thirteen (13) year old daughter Rania to the best schools such as St. Mary’s Fatima, Holy Name Convent which are considered to be the best schools in the island, are all located in the city of Port of Spain. These schools are considered “the best” because in order to attend these schools primary school students must receive over 250 marks in the common entrance examination. These schools are ranked based on common entrance marks.

Those children who live in more rural areas who are so unfortunate to pass for one of these city schools, experience great difficulty in getting to and from school in a timely fashion. According to Ms. Francais children like her daughter wake very earlier for school and get home during the mid to late evening depending on the traffic. Ms. Francais complains that this puts unnecessary strain on her daughter and the children in similar situations as these children as these children are often extremely due to the fact these child spend on average more than four (4) hours traveling daily, which cuts into their sleep time.

1.1 Graph showing the distance travelled in time and in miles

Nevertheless, parents of these children refuse to remedy the distance issue by sending their children to closer schools that are in their rural neighbourhoods on the basis that they would like their children “to get a better education, (Ms. Francais). These parents believe that the only for their children to truly succeed is to be sent one of the many “top” schools in the city. This could be to the detriment of the rural communities in which they live. According to Rojas (1989) when rural dwellers seek employment or schooling outside of their rural community, in cities and towns, the rural areas suffer a great loss. These persons who could possibly contribute meaningfully to the advancement of the rural community end up contributing to the further development of the urban areas in which they work or attend school. If the brightest children are sent to city schools, rural areas suffer in that the schools these areas are well funded by government, they do not receive many scholarships, they are not well acknowledge for their academic or sporting achievements. These schools often become margialised and poorly funded, Rojas (1989) argue that politicians and government should do more to develop rural areas as well as urban areas instead on pool all of the resources and revenue in urban areas. He argues that this would increase the countries overall productivity.

However, there are some exceptions to this rule. There are some prestigious schools in the southern areas of Trinidad. For example the Naparima Colleges (NAPS) for boys and girls are the shiny beckons of the south. Both of these school are well known for the brilliant student they produce. These schools However, are in San Fernando, a city in the south of Trinidad. This means that children who live in rural areas of Trinidad still have to travel to the city in order to attend a “good” school. Nevertheless many children like Rania Francais make the daily sacrifice to travel to school with little complaint; being heavily convinced that it is for their benefit. Hopefully some brilliant mind will recognise that brilliance can be natured in rural areas as well, so that these children can get a “good” education closer to home.

Sources:

http://myelearning.sta.uwi.edu/file.php/32678/Rojas_1989.pdf

http://www.inis.gov.ie/website/nda/cntmgmtnew.nsf/0/8F45C3FF02655CAE802570F2004774C5/$File/student_journeys_18.htm

The Economics of Parking in Port of Spain

Car park in the city 

The Economics of Parking in Port of Spain

Some Question IF Driving or Taking Public Transport to the City Would Be a Better Option.

When Walking through the busy streets of Port of Spain there are many vehicles parked along the side of the road. Have you ever wondered why?  Most of these persons are trying to acquire free parking and not having to pay the fee of entering a Car Park which is about 40 TT for the day. As two urban geographers we stood outside on the Car Parks in Port of Spain and asked persons questions on why they prefer to Park in this high rise car park than on the street. Then we moved onto the streets and interview this interesting man by the name of Ryan when he was vacating his car on why he prefers to Park illegally. He stated that he was only going to be in town for a short while he saw no since in going to pay all of that money when he can Park along side of the road. We asked him if he is aware of the consequences of parking on the streets for example having his car taken up by a tow truck or it being accidently hit by an oncoming car. He stated that it has never happened so he would continue risking it.

As we continued our adventure throughout the city, hearing the sound of the talking vendors and the smell of fresh pineapple, we asked Ryan along with two other drivers if they considered the calamities of parking when buying car, their answer was no, their only thought was using their vehicles mode of transportation. Many of the factors such as parking spaces, gas money and the up keep of the car is sometimes neglected when purchasing a car by many owners. One may question how does this tie into urban geography; it doesn’t actually have a specific topic but the greatest highlight in this blog is the prices in the city versus other places within the country and how the how the working class mainly makes up the greater percentage that use the parking in the city.

According to Michael Pacione, in most cities centre, finding a place to park a car is difficult. In many cities parking is often seen, by drivers at least, as the major problem of urban transport. He also stated that it is impossible for a large city to provide car parking space for all who wish to enter the centre restrictions apply. These may lead to illegal parking, which can impede the flow of traffic. This is not the case in this Caribbean country however on special holidays such as Christmas and other special occasions there would be a massive load of persons invading the city making it hard for persons to park but on a daily basis car parks are very empty. Especially on weekends because on weekdays the working population take up most of the space within these parks. In comparison to these continents there are greater amount of cars than in Trinidad giving rise to the problems they encountered, this was experienced first-hand in the U.S.A when my aunt hand to continually circle the high rise parking lot in search of a parking space other than my experience here when I entered the car park there were so many spaces it was unbelievable. There are 256 million cars in North America versus Trinidad which was 13,500. See Figure 1 below

Our las venture was interview persons at the toll both, although they were a bit sceptical at two strangers walking up to them answered us with a smile. This specific carpark’s name was Trinity Cathedral Carpark which the lady stated to us that this car par does not take daily persons that come for a one off park but it more made out for working persons which pay a monthly fee. She was unsure of the price and referred us to the main office which was close due to it being a Saturday. We followed by asking her if many of the car parks around the city are like this and she stated that yes a couple of them are only monthly payments only. One can see economically why persons why take monthly payer over one off users. A greater revenue is generated at the end of the month than just a couple persosn paying for a couple hours.

256 000000

13,500

Happy Reading J

To buy a car or not buy a car? That is the question.

 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:

http://www.nlc.org/documents/Find%20City%20Solutions/Research%20Innovation/Infrastructure/understanding-urban-transportation-systems-gid-mar11.pdf

http://www.trinidadautobook.com/

http://search.proquest.com/openview/40af153798c8bef83b455a6ca1e63d22/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=1817076

A Taxi Driver's Rage

All of our cities did not start out with this advance technology that we know in today's world but there were once horses and carriage system used in the 1800's to early 1900's. The Borchert's  systems pays close attention to different periods or epochs based on the technology that significantly impacted urbanisation. First there was the Sail and Wagon from 1790-1830 where the movement of people was limited, then we moved to 1870 to 1920 which was known as the Horse Epoch where cities expanded and goods were moved long distance and finally the Auto/ Air Epoch from the 1920 to 1970, but really continuing to present day . This final period transformed the urban system drastically by the use of automobiles. This is clearly seen in the city of Port of Spain where the automobiles, maxi's , buses and other means of transport are in great abundance. Hence, in today's blog Hannah Marshall and Michala Rock would take you on a journey to Port of Spain and the struggles that comes along with being a taxi driver.

In comparison to natural resources and other economic devices, one can say that cities are the engines of economic growth in most developing counties and a that urban transport is the oil that prevents the engine from seizing up. Many persons depend heavily on motorized vehicles in and out of the city. One's senses are highly captivated while in the City of Port of Spain from the noise of traffic of the passing traffic, the angry driver beeping their horns, the talking vendors and the smell of combustion. There was one driver that went by the name of Mark highlighted in the picture in the orange shirt explained to us that life as a transport driver in the City of Port of Spain has its benefits and challenges. His daily route is to the San Juan area in Trinidad which is about thirty minutes from the capital.

Photo of Taxi driver in Port of Spain

Photo Taken By Hannah Marshall

 

Taxi Driver Mark in the Orange shirt assisting his passengers

Even though the challenges amounted the benefit, he still persisted in saying that he turns up here every day regardless.  He pointed out the economic situation was in terrible standing where many people did not like to take public or private transport anymore and now are purchasing their own vehicles their own vehicles.

According to diagram below it highlights the increase in the amount of car now present in Trinidad and Tobago.

According to the Trinidad guardian (2014) there was a 12.4 per cent increase in new cars purchased in 2013 as compared to 2012

According to NationMaster (2016) Trinidad had 353 motor vehicles per 1000 people and ranked 48^th out of 191.

The x axis shows the progression of the years and the y axis shows the increase in the number of cars per capita. This goes to show that from 2005 to 2007 there has a significant increase in the number of personal cars in Trinidad. This increase can be linked to the increase in heavy traffic in the cities of Port of Spain and San Fernado. The increase in personal cars could also explain the growing informal (illegal) taxi service industry which gives competition to legal, registered taxi drivers. This was justified by the words of a local taxi driver.

Mark continued by mentioning that the passengers can also be horrible where there are rude and don’t know where there are going so it make it difficult for him to deal with when they are unaware. He also mentioned that the drivers can also be a problem where they are many illegal drivers out there trying to make money. He mentioned that he couldn't be upset because everyone has to survive out here. The benefits he mentioned is that despite the economic situation. he still makes money every day to feed himself and it also build characteristics such as patience.

From research it was discovered that The World Bank posited that sometimes presumed that the deteriorating state of urban transport in many developing countries has been caused by relatively higher levels of motorization with respect to income levels than are experienced in the industrialized countries. The findings obtained in the interview and the literature are common in nature.

Sources

• ttp://www.tradingeconomics.com/trinidad-and-tobago/motor-vehicles-per-1-000-people-wb-data.html
• http://siteresources.worldbank.org/INTURBANTRANSPORT/Resources/cities_on_the_move.pdf
• http://apcentral.collegeboard.com/apc/members/courses/teachers_corner/8787.html

Happy Reading :) :)