The debate on solving the capital’s transport problems rumbles on. Conatra, one of the country’s main transport cartels, suggests that the global and definitive solution to the disorder that will improve transport and traffic in Greater Santo Domingo and the country is to take 40,000 public shared taxis out of the system. However, representatives of the PRSC party say they prefer the government proposal to change public sector working hours. The government is the country’s largest employer.
The government’s idea is to change working hours from 9am to 4pm so that they are different from the private sector, which will reduce traffic jams.
PRSC deputy Maximo Castro Silverio said that this idea has been around for 20 years and has been discussed by the Chamber of Deputies, but Labor Minister Maritza Hernandez does not think it will work. Hernandez points out that restaurant workers and students travel to work at different times and that has not solved the problem. She confirmed that the proposal had never gone beyond the Chamber of Deputies.
Transport kingpin Antonio Marte, meanwhile, believes that a better solution would be to get rid of 40,000 public shared taxis and replace them with buses that would guarantee users a comfortable, cheap and safe means of transport. He says that the current transport system does not work and that the service has been inadequate for the last 50 years due to a combination of population growth and lack of political will. It is estimated that 2,700,000 people commute to work and study in the Greater Santo Domingo area.
