Carpooling unlikely to succeed – LTA
CARPOOLING is unlikely to be successful in Fiji, the Land Transport Authority chief executive officer Samuel Simpson told the Public Accounts Committee, which reviewed the Auditor-General’s report on the Performance Audit on Management of Traffic Congestion.
The OAG had found the LTA had started the planning stage by conducting a carpooling survey.
LTA conducted an independent study on carpooling and found 75 per cent of the vehicles commuting during the critical time are private vehicles.
This is closely followed by taxis and buses with 17 per cent and 8 per cent respectively.
The Public Accounts Committee found Section 61 of the Land Transport Act 1998 provides for carpooling, however, “despite the Land Transport Authority’s creating awareness and encouraging the citizens of Fiji to practise carpooling, it is yet to enforce the law”.
“Fiji’s carpooling initiative has met strong objection from the Fiji bus operators as they are of the view that exchange of a fare for a service in a private vehicle is creating an illegal activity.
“It is discovered that most passengers involved in carpooling do not own vehicles.
“The ministry and LTA will continue to look into how best carpooling can be implemented.”
Mr Simpson submitted to the committee that carpooling was a policy matter for the Ministry of Infrastructure and Transport.
“It is unlikely to be successful in Fiji for cultural reasons and will require a very sophisticated app to manage it.”