Transportation System in the Port-au-Prince Area
For the past 30 years, there have been numerous transportation studies on the Port-au Prince area by the Haitian Government and international organizations. Yet we witness the conditions of the capital today: congestion, delays, anarchy, chaos, accidents, etc. As we all know, transportation does not exist in a vacuum; it is part of a dynamic system that involves a number of elements including urban planning, zoning, land use, economic development, energy, safety, and so on. Therefore, several questions come to mind: Is it possible to solve the transportation/traffic issues in Port-au-Prince without a significant overhaul of the city based on an integrated approach? Can we afford to provide scarce resources for improvements of the Port-au-Prince area at the expense of the rest of the country which has been deteriorating? Considering that Port-au-Prince is over populated, will any improvements in Port-au- Prince be sustainable without a genuine effort at decentralization? Will improvements in Port-au-Prince induce more traffic from surrounding areas?
Rudolf J. Gedeon, PE