Why can't we all just ride along?
Published:Sunday | July 8, 2012 | 12:00 AM
Mel Cooke, Gleaner Writer
I am always struck by the numbers of persons who reportedly attended Reggae Sunsplash in its early days. I have read estimates of up to 40,000 persons at the 1979 edition in Montego Bay, the only staging at which Bob Marley and the Wailers played.
Estimates are just that, and figures can be easily inflated by those whose memories of significant events supersede what actually took place. However, from all that I have read about Sunsplash, which was a cross-country musical pilgrimage for Kingstonians, the attendance was huge.
This was, however, at a time when there were fewer cars in the country. Plus, I expect, many of the cars around then would be owned by higher-income persons, leaving the 'poor people' reggae fan base even fewer rides to tag along with.
So it would have been a matter of taking the bus or, as I have been told by some of those who took the journey from Kingston to MoBay for 'Splash', packing up in a car. It was undoubtedly dangerous; I have heard takes of 10 adults in a Ford Cortina. But they reached in numbers.
Horrendous
Fast-forward to now, when I have had cause to drive against the morning traffic along Mandela Highway on a few occasions in recent months. It is horrendous, from Six Miles/Duhaney Park to close to White Marl, two lanes of vehicles inching forward. And it is going to get worse, what with the housing development at Caymanas, and as even more housing is constructed deeper in St Catherine and into Clarendon.
Many of these people will have to commute to Kingston daily for work and/or school.
It would seem a no-brainer that some level of carpooling would take place, especially among single persons. It sounds simple - I drive today, you drive tomorrow, we switch the order next week to take care of the extra day. We both save gas money, wear and tear on our automobiles, the energy that is required to drive long distances and reduce the possibility of being the driver involved in an accident.
However, as far as I have been told by the few persons I know who live 'across the water', car-pooling is simply not happening. It is everyone for themselves, even when they are friends who live in the same community and work in generally the same area.
So why can't we all just ride along? Is it that we don't think about it, or that we are generally unwilling to share other's space and have others in ours? Are we looking at the disparity in ride quality, that 'my car is better than yours' - or the other way around?
Whatever the reason, there are many of us in Jamaica who could be saving significantly through carpooling, as this does not apply only to Portmore. If only we could see economising as 'sexy' as spending, then maybe we would get to where we ought to be.
Less traffic, less spending.