Garth Rattray | The out-of-control tolls

We could not fund the needed highways, so we accepted the inevitability of toll roads. However, we didn’t expect the fees to be beyond the reach of so many citizens. Many people commute to and from the Kingston and St Andrew Metropolitan Srea daily, but exorbitant fees mean that most people cannot afford to use the toll roads.

Toll roads are significantly safer, provide faster commuting, cause less wear and tear on parts, are more dependable, and fuel sparing, but are very costly when compared to the local roads.

The cost of the North-South (Luxury) Highway forces most citizens to use the Junction or the local road over Mount Rosser. Billions of dollars were spent on one section of the Junction. The rest of that roadway is very narrow, very winding, potholed, rough, dangerous, and extremely prone to land slippage and blockage. The Government has given up on rehabilitating it in its entirety.

The local road from St Catherine to St Ann, is long, narrow, winding, potholed, denuded in places, and prone to slippage and blockage in several areas. There is no good alternative to the North-South (Luxury) Highway, yet it is prohibitively expensive. The exorbitant fees defeat the purpose for which it was constructed. There is something intrinsically and ethically wrong with that.

It is unfortunate that Jamaican toll fees are calculated using the height and length of vehicles. Class 1 vehicles are less than 1.7 metres high, Class 2 vehicles are more than 1.7 metres high, but less than 5.5 metres long, and Class 3 vehicles are more than 1.7 metres high and more than 5.5 metres long.

Since the concern is the weight of vehicles causing wear and tear on the road surface, using height and length does not guarantee that lighter vehicles will pay less. For example, a pickup can weigh around 2,040kg and will be classified as Class 2. Yet several high-end cars weigh around 2,434kg and are classified as Class 1. Additionally, sometimes vehicles go in one direction and are classified as Class 1, but when returning, they are classified as Class 2. This has resulted in quarrels at the toll booths.

Some full-size pickups are classified as Class 3 and must pay the same as fully loaded tractor trailers (carrying many tonnes of cargo) because they are 1.95 metres high, and 5.87 metres long. Some pickups might weigh between 2,340kg and 2,600kg, but the average trailer head (the tractor unit) weighs from 6,500kg to 7,500 kg.

USING VEHICLE AXELS

A more accurate, far fairer, and much more popular fee assessment is using vehicle axels. Globally, 70-80 per cent of all toll roads base their fees on the number of axels because it is easier to implement and enforce, less prone to errors, and more cost-effective. Regular passenger vehicles are two-axle. Small commercial vehicles are usually also two-axle, large commercial vehicles are usually three-axle, and extra-large commercial vehicles are usually four-axle, but some have five and others have 10 axels.

Even by international standards, our toll fees are considered expensive.

It is, therefore, impossible to save towards paying any of our ridiculous toll fees. The disparity between our minuscule income on savings and necessary day-to-day expenditures is highlighted by the farcical toll fees in Jamaica.

If Class 1 Portmore toll road motorists tried to save diligently and use all of their [after-tax] interest earned on savings just to pay the toll for one year – assuming a five-day work week, for 49 weeks out of each year (allowing two weeks of vacation and one week for national holidays), at a $720 daily roundtrip, they will need $3,600 per work week and $176,400.00 annually. To earn an after-tax interest of $176,400, the before-tax interest earned must be $235,200.

With an average annual interest rate on regular savings accounts in a commercial bank currently at 0.56 per cent per annum … in order to earn an after-tax interest of $235,200.00, motorists will need a principal of about 42 million Jamaican dollars just to pay the toll fee annually until it is hiked again.

Likewise, East-West Class 1 commuters (to May Pen and back) will spend $475,300 annually and need a principal of about $113 million. North-South (Luxury) Highway Class 1 commuters spend $1,163,750 annually and will need a principal of about $277 million! Multiply those figures by two and three for Class 2 and Class 3 vehicles, respectively.

SHOULD BE AFFORDABLE

Citizens do not have safe and efficient north–south local roads, therefore the toll roads should be affordable to everyone. In the case of the Portmore citizens, although the alternate is safe, it is very heavily trafficked and traps vehicles for hours in long lines.

Since the Government is obviously helpless to make the tolls affordable, the very least that can be done is to improve the alternate routes provided by our local roads. It was recently announced that there will be some roadwork done through the Relief Emergency Assistance and Community Help (REACH) programme to “address critical road infrastructure needs across the island, with a specific focus on damage caused by recent weather events, including Hurricane Beryl, as well as the execution of routine road maintenance”.

My concern is that the roadwork will fail within weeks or months. We need good quality, properly supervised, long-lasting road rehabilitation. We need verges clear of flora and bright lines placed along the roadways. That way, we can safely use our local roads instead of the exorbitant toll roads.

Garth A. Rattray is a medical doctor with a family practice. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and garthrattray@gmail.com.