Moratorium
The idea of placing a moratorium on car rental licences (see Thursday’s paper) is a good one. While limiting the import of cars, as suggested, would hurt the local population because it would almost certainly drive up the price for cars, not allowing more car rentals seems sensible. Not allowing visitors to rent cars, as others have called for, is not an attractive option either as, also because of the public transport situation on the island, one can hardly expect visitors to book costly airline tickets and either buy or rent expensive accommodations only to be told they can’t rent cars.
It is true that there is sometimes a shortage of rental cars during the busiest periods, especially if one tries to rent one at the last minute, but that is limited to a few short periods such as the Christmas holidays and travellers should know that when they come to the island around those times they should reserve their vehicles well in advance.
Just as important as freezing the car rental licences, however, is making sure the existing ones stick to the rule that they can’t have more than 200 cars in their fleets, and it is not sure government is a position to effectively control that. What probably will happen is that car rentals that don’t own 200 cars will expand their fleets, but there is at least a limit to that.
There is also the possibility that more “gypsy” car rentals will start operating and simply fill the void caused by the moratorium, with the danger that they might not provide the service and guarantees of reputable car rentals. Here again, effective control and enforcing the law become crucial.
Without official figures on the number of existing car rentals, one would have to say there are more than enough rental cars on the road. To prevent even more traffic congestion of the existing road system, it seems a logical step to at least prevent further growth in this sector.
It is not enough though. To effectively get a grip on how busy the roads are, government will have to consider not allowing the construction of too many more tourist accommodations than those already committed for, because the more rooms there are, the more people will occupy them and the more cars will be on the road.
In addition, also considering the strong growth of the marine sector, something will have to be done to deal with traffic caused in part by the Simpson Bay bridge openings. A road/bridge across Simpson Bay Lagoon still appears the only viable option here.
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