There is a plan to breathe life back into Bridgetown and it involves using the sun.
The idea, outlined by the founder of the Solar Transport Project, William Hinds, would see tram-like transport, powered by solar energy, making a looping route from Princess Alice Highway, through Broad Street and up to Fairchild Street.
He told the DAILY NATION he was not sure when the project would be implemented but said: “I am thinking that this year.”
Hinds explained it was the Small Business Association which was “re-establishing the project”, with assistance from the United Nations Global Environmental Facility.
The details were revealed during the Future Centre Trust’s National Green Knowledge Fair entitled Pathways To The Green Economy, held at Queen’s Park Steel Shed on Sunday.
“What we are proposing is using a shuttle within Bridgetown that can run you anywhere around Bridgetown. We are saying, in this modern day and age the shuttle we should be using is solar – clean energy,” Hinds declared, adding officials were looking at getting it sponsored by the stores.
He said the proposed route was from Princess Alice Highway, along Cheapside, Jubilee Gardens, City Centre car park, Broad Street, Charles Duncan O’Neal Bridge, Fairchild Street and then back to the Princess Alice Terminal.
In his presentation, Hinds, the chief energy conservation officer in the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Unit, said the need for a special type of transport was identified as one of the ways to make Bridgetown more attractive to shoppers.
“We really need to have an interesting and exciting transport system, not into Bridgetown and out, but we need to have a transport system that allows you, when you get off the bus at Cheapside or Fairchild Street, to have some transportation within Bridgetown.
“So that we can ride from one store to another store to another store, without having to have that very long walk, so that we can reverse the shifting of people who are going to the malls and have them come back to Bridgetown,” he stressed.
Hinds explained that sunshine feeding into a solar panel on the roof of the vehicles would be converted to electricity which then powers the tram-like vehicles.
He said that over 2 000 cars were driven into Bridgetown and many drivers did not like the capital city because parking was an issue.
Hinds added the idea of a park and ride system into Bridgetown had been floated – with the Garrison, Queen’s Park or Weymouth suggested as parking points.
“But when you get into Bridgetown, it is still a long distance to walk. You go into one store to buy your shoes and then you say you need to buy a shirt and it’s in another store far away, and you are walking in the sun.”
The tram, he noted, would be no threat to pedestrian traffic since it would be slow-moving, which would be in keeping with the general pace of vehicular traffic in Broad Street anyhow.
Hinds said it would be easy for passengers to hop on and off, not only because of their slow pace, but because the trams were open. (HLE)