Fiji Times, Sat 10 Feb – We all have had enough of this traffic congestion. Not only is the number of vehicles on the road skyrocketing, the invasion of the orange cones brigade is choking the traffic flow in all directions.
It is also being felt in smaller towns across Fiji. Traffic congestion is now a national problem. The bad news is that it will get worse very quickly and there is no solution in sight. Traffic congestion has mushroomed almost overnight.
It seems like only yesterday when I could zip into Suva in 10 minutes from my home in Namadi Heights.
Now it can take more than 45 minutes.
We have heard the frustrations of those living as far away as Nausori who must leave home at 5.30am to make it to work in Suva on time. This is simply ludicrous. Yet, the public continues to shoulder this silently.
Who benefits from this traffic congestion? Of course, it’s the car dealers who have sprouted up like mushrooms. The other is Government collecting monies from Customs duties, VAT, and registration fees.
What is the root cause of the congestion asks Mr Narube. He writes the causes are due mostly to hybrid reconditioned cars that are being brought in to Fiji and thehe impact of owning a car affects our everyday lives. Families may have to sacrifice priorities like education and housing to fund the cost of running a vehicle.
The rise in bad debts of banks and credit institutions could raise interest rates on all consumer loans. Unfortunately, no one is educating our people, especially the younger generation, of setting priorities and identifying financial risks.
Government is borrowing to finance these roadworks. It is the younger generations who will shoulder the burden of servicing this higher debt. The payment of interest on our debt is already more than $300 million per year.
The most important economic cost is the reduction in national productivity ’ by being late to work, leaving work early, stress and tiredness from the waking up early in the morning and arriving home late in the evening, more time taken to go to meetings during the day, and less time with the family.
How can we measure this loss? There is no perfect and simple framework that one can use for this estimation. We will have to resort to bold but reasonable estimates.
If we make a reasonable estimate that on average 30 per cent of the total wage and salary earners loses say one hour of productive time per day because of the longer travelling time, we are losing a mammoth 1.56 million man-days in a year.
Therefore, in my calculation, the traffic congestion is costing the country about $370m a year in lost production. This is going to get worse.
One reason given for reducing the duty on hybrid cars was to save on fuel imports.
I don’t expect a reduction in the quantity of fuel that we import because fuel savings from using hybrid cars is more than swamped by the increase in the number of cars. More cars travelling bumper to bumper for a long period of time is bound to increase fuel consumption.
The other reason given for reducing the duty on hybrid cars is climate change. I am no expert on this but intuitively, the total carbon emission will rise because of the increase in the number of cars.
We all know that our roads are not built to accommodate the number of vehicles that we now have.
While owning a car has its benefits, there are also the cost of registrations, servicing, and repairs. These reconditioned cars are being dumped into Fiji.
Some of these cars need repairs very quickly after purchase. If you add the interest on the car loan, the annual cost of operating a vehicle in one year can be the same as the purchase price of the car itself.
If the car loan is not repaid on time, financial institutions will repossess the car leaving the owner with nothing but a big debt to pay.
Needless to say, the e-Transport system adds to the problem. If you add the stress, the tiredness, and the cost of health treatment, this is still an underestimation.
Over time, the public will adapt to live with these conditions. But, like the e- Transport, tolerance of this congestion does not remove nor lighten the load or lessen the cost. People will carry this burden every day.
• Savenaca Narube was the former governor of the Reserve Bank of Fiji and permanent secretary of the Ministry of Finance.
