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Dear Sir,
The recent articles by Stuart Hayward about what can be done to reduce traffic congestion in Bermuda contain a number of sensible ideas and if followed would have an impact.
However, I believe that there are additional steps that can be taken which would further reduce traffic and, more importantly, share the burden across the community.      The leader of any substantive effort must be Government — it is the only body that can provide information and change law and policy.
    The first step that Government should take is to provide clear and comprehensive information about how many vehicles are licensed and the rules around their use. While not exhaustive, this information should include:

• The number of government (GP and other), residential and non-residential vehicles on the road currently, the number five years ago and the number 10 years ago;
• A breakdown of the non-residential vehicles by category and the rules around the licensing and usage of these vehicles.

The Government should then commit to:

• Reducing Government vehicles by 2 per cent per year until the total number is back to the 1998 figure.
• Change the law to abolish the second hand car market.
• Change the law to reduce the size of cars back to what was allowed in 1998. Grandfather in larger vehicles for 10 years but increase the licensing fee for these vehicles significantly (say by 100 per cent) to give owners an incentive to move back to smaller vehicles sooner. The funds raised could be used for road repair and to subsidize small car license fees by 25 per cent;
• Enforce the law and policy to ensure non-residential vehicles are not used as “second family vehicles”. This can be done by requiring these vehicles to be parked at the place of business overnight and on weekends. Require that company logos and phone numbers be on all non-residential vehicles so those breaking the law and the spirit of the law can be held accountable. It may be necessary to strengthen the existing laws and introduce stiffer, more substantive penalties;
• Look into setting a maximum number of non-residential vehicles and reducing the number currently on the road.

    
By taking these steps, the effort to reduce the number of vehicles is shared by the entire community and thus is more likely to be acceptable and successful.
        
               Sarah J. Cooke
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