Mikael Phillips’ assignment

MIKAEL PHILLIPS, the Opposition spokesman on transport, is proceeding on the same path as most aspirants to government. Which usually sets them for failure if they became ministers.

He might have a mish-mash of ideas, mostly focused on the small-bore stuff, but no large, strategic plans or policies for the sector of which he hopes to be in charge should the People’s National Party (PNP) win the next general election, due in 18 months.

“I am making you this promise,” Mr Phillips told his party’s supporters in the western parish of Westmoreland, this week.“When the People’s National Party is re-elected, give me six months as minister of transport and we will have a national transport plan.”

That plan, he suggested, would cover the Jamaica Urban Transit Company (JUTC), which operates primarily in the Kingston Metropolitan Region, as well as the island’s route taxes. He also airily mentioned the prospects for light rail between Spanish Town, the capital of the southern parish of St Catherine, and Kingston, the coastal capital further south. And since Mr Phillips spoke in Westmoreland, he, for good measure, threw in a better, more comfortable transport hub of Savanna-la-Mar, that parish’s capital town.

INEXCUSABLE

Mr Phillips’ vagueness on policy prescriptions for public transportation is inexcusable, having shadowed the portfolio for seven years. That is largely emblematic of how the PNP has approached its time in seeming strategy to return to government: wait on the administration to implode under the weight of missteps and scandals, rather than being tested on ideas and policies.

People who enter government without concrete policies or clear sense of mission tend to get little done.

Once in office ministers are quickly overwhelmed responding to immediate crises, with little to focus on big ideas. It is in part for this reason that this newspaper wasn’t impressed when Daryl Vaz was given responsibility for transportation and spoke glibly of 100-day plan for the sector.

Thus far, he has managed to increase fares for privately operated route taxis, roll back those for the government-owned JUTC and made himself a fairly regular presence at the JUTC’s major hub, the Half-Way Tree Transport Centre.

He hasn’t yet addressed large, strategic issues. And well beyond 100 days, Kingston’s public transport system remains shambolic. Route taxis race dangerously and taxi and bus drivers continue ignore road rules.

There is still an opportunity for Mikael Phillips to salvage his portfolio from a hazy vision, to deliver a clear strategy with which to begin his tenure if he became the minister – assuming that Prime Minister Andrew Holness is not in a hurry to call general election.

Rather than waiting until he gets into office to hurriedly drag a plan together, Mr Phillips would be better advised to begin to do that now. And not a short-term initiative, but, say, a 20-year programme for the transformation of public and private transportation, and mechanisms for how Jamaica plans and manages the development of the other factors that impact on how people commute and why they must.

LARGER CONTEXT

In other words, Mr Phillips should not see public transportation only in terms of the speeding, overcrowded buses and taxis that don’t obey rules, but in their larger context as key elements of the national economy, as well as everything else that goes into this critical system. Indeed, how Jamaica regulates private transportation has to be part of the mix.

The point is that there are nearly 600,000 certified motor vehicles in Jamaica. In 2022, the island spent over US$300 million on vehicle imports, although the value of licences issued was over US$500 million.

Of the more than 20 barrels of oil imported, costing over US$2 billion, a third is used for ground transportation. These figures don’t account for the cost of spare parts to keep the vehicles running and for the upkeep and expansion of the road network to accommodate motor vehicles.

Moreover, private passenger carriers is the fastest growing segment of motor vehicle ownership in Jamaica. More than 45,000 were registered in 2022, an increase of approximately 16 per cent, following a 43 per cent growth the previous year. A large number of the private vehicles, if not the vast majority, transport single passengers, which shows in the daily traffic gridlocks in Kingston and elsewhere in the island.

The issue that faces Mr Phillips, or anyone who is serious about a serious transportation policy, is to craft one that takes these and other matters into account. In other words, the transportation policy must be an integrated scheme for moving people efficiently. That includes determining where communities are located, how they are connected to each other, what modes, or mix of solutions are most economically and socially suitable for Jamaica’s situation.

Figuring this out, at a time when he isn’t faced with the hurly-burly of office, is Mr Phillips’ assignment.