Dear Editor,

There have been calls for a three-day boycott of the Portmore leg of Highway 2000. In fact, as I understand it, further calls are being made for solidarity among users of other legs of the highway. The boycott is to be staged Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday of this week.

People are hurting and people are desperate, but this is a dumb suggestion.

A lot of this stems from ignorance of how a country is run, of how a company is run. The president of a taxi association called for toll rates to be increased every five or 10 years. Ridiculous! So many people don’t understand the binding nature of a contract. So many people are financially illiterate. They don’t understand the responsibility of a company to its shareholders. What the taxi associations should be doing is getting fares increased every two to three years.

Jamaicans, do not support this plan! I have a funny feeling that it will not be successful.

What the users of Highway 2000 are being asked to do is to inconvenience themselves for three days. To support this boycott will mean enduring the bottleneck through Old Harbour and on the Mandela Highway for three mornings and three evenings. The amount of gas that will be wasted by doing this might end up being more expensive than taking the toll road. I really hope that good sense prevails.

Whatever form of protest that I embark on must never be to my discomfort and disadvantage. Apart from the waste of time and gas, there is the risk of road rage, which may result when impatient motorists begin to create extra lanes. Do these people really know what they are asking for? Whatever form of protest I participate in, I must not end up being the loser?

Is it possible that the aim of the protest is to cause the country to lose valuable money and foreign exchange? No, I am not doing it. The country cannot afford to lose the money. I am not going to ‘lick’ myself by trying to ‘lick’ the Government.

What, therefore, do I propose?

I have only two main suggestions at this time.

Firstly, carpool. This should have been thought of a long time ago. My idea is to carpool four days per week and work from home one day. By doing so, you save 50 per cent of the toll. In other words, you pay less than before the increase in toll rates.

Secondly, government departments and private sector companies should employ more buses to transport their workers.

I recognise that my proposals might not work for everybody, but creating gridlock can’t be a solution.

Norman W M Thompson

norms74160@gmail.com