THERE ARE TOO MANY public service vehicles (PSV) on the roads and some should be taken off.

That was the opinion of several callers on yesterday's Voice Of Barbados' Brass Tacks Sunday who took part in the second of the two-part discussion on bringing an end to the traffic management problems in Barbados.

One caller specifically said with so many on certain routes, there would be bad behaviour on the road "because they would scrambble for passengers" and cause problems on the road.

However, past president of the Barbados Association of Professional Engineers, Lieutenant Colonel Trevor Brown, disagreed, saying that taking PSVs off the road would not solve the problems.

Stiffer penalties

"We cannot limit the number of PSVs. It should be worked out by competition; let the market decide," he said.

He instead called for stiffer penalties, which he said would curb the breaking of traffic laws.

"If you have a jurisdiction where people actually enforce the laws and where the penalties are such that it is not worth your while, which is the whole idea of a penalty, then we will see changes of behaviour," he said.

He said that the crux of the matter came when people were given responsibility to do things to take care of traffic management, but did not do their job for whatever reason.

More complex

Chief Technical Officer of the Ministry of Public Works, Frank Thornhill, said traffic management "was more complex", adding that lack of enforcement was a major hindrance to its management.

However, one PSV operator called in on Brass Tacks and said only with "a level playing field", especially when it came to permits, routes, and enforcement of laws on all PSVs, omni-buses and Transport Board buses, would there be any drive forward to better traffic management.

Last Sunday, Acting Assistant Superintendent Leon Blades called for a dedicated traffic court to expedite matters because the present courts were clogged up.

Tony Marshall, the show's moderator, called for routes to be tendered as part of the island's traffic management programme. (TM)