A transportation plan for the Virgin Islands

The United States Virgin Islands consist of four small islands comprising 140 square miles. In that small area there are 74,000 cars and the number has been growing by about 5 per cent each year.  This has led to heavy traffic congestion in the major town. Residents were burning about 44 million gallons of gas in the year 2000 and by year 2010, they were burning about 50 million gallons a year.

Cutting back fuel consumption in the United States Virgin Islands is not so much a problem of planning as it is in a problem of implementation. Take for instance the report USVI Transit Strategies for Energy Conservation produced by the USVI Department of Public Works in 2009. The report assesses three distinct areas – park and ride; alternative fuels; and traffic signal priority for public transit buses. The report came out with no specific recommendation about alternative fuels or traffic signal priority, but it was it was clear about the park and ride strategy. The executive summary of the report states, “It is recommended that the government…..conduct further research on the development of the Cost-U-Less parking area. It may be possible to generate 150 daily parkers in a facility at this location.”  See report here.

As far as can be seen, the recommendation has never been acted upon. This is quite important because the parking area in question is about five miles outside Charlotte Amalie, the VI’s most populous town and the route to it on weekdays is almost always jammed and it can take a half hour to travel that distance in a vehicle. Once one arrives in Charlotte Amalie, parking is usually a problem and people drive all over looking for a parking place. It is amazing that residents are not crying out for this plan to be implemented. It would reduce the use in gasoline by, not only have less cars on the road, but less time would be spent by other cars stalled in traffic burning gas and less time for them driving around looking for a parking place

Or consider the Comprehensive Energy Strategy contracted by the VI Energy Office also in 2009. In the transportation sector it says,  ‘To achieve long term transport fuel efficiency replacing the existing vehicles with more efficient ones is the most likely to provide long term benefits. Incentives to purchase high fuel efficiency diesel or hybrid cars as well as tax policies that increase taxes on the sale of low efficiency can act to increase the overall transport fuel efficiency and are recommended.

“Government regulations require that vehicles purchased by the government be selected on the basis of life-cycle cost, not first cost. That regulation should be rigorously enforced.” See report here.

That regulation is still not enforced. As for the other proposal; there was a very brief program funded through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that allowed about $100,000 to be given in rebates to residents buying high mileage vehicles. The money only lasted a few months.

Then came the biggest plan of all. In April 2009 the National Renewable Energy Laboratory announced a pilot project, Energy Development in Island Nation, designed to help islands across the globe deploy energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. Virgin Islands came on board. 

The expertise brought to the islands from NREL was exceptional and plans and reports were impressive. Many of those plans concerning wind power and solar meet with some success, but again not much was done on the transportation level. NREL did release the US Virgin Islands Transportation Petroleum Reduction Plan. See report here.

 It does not differ extremely from the basic plan as outlined in this course. The NREL recommendations included in the executive summary of the report included:

Ø 20 per cent less travel (combining trips)

Ø Fuel economy improvements

Ø Traffic flow improvements

Ø Electric vehicles

Ø Renewable and biodiesel

Ø Ethanol

The EDIN report indicated that Virgin Islands residents were burning about 49 million gallons of gasoline in 2010. It estimated, by using the above recommendations, Virgin Islander could cut their fuel usage by 60 per cent. The reduction would be as follow: less trips, 34 per cent; improved mileage, 29 per cent; traffic flow improvements, 8 per cent; electric vehicles, 8 per cent; renewable and biodiesel, 16 per cent; and ethanol 5 per cent.

So the easy answer to how the Virgin Islands could cut its fuel use in half is to follow recommendations.

However, as a resident, I think the plan should be modified. I see no hope for renewable or biodiesel fuels becoming an option on the islands. However, I see electric vehicles with solar charging stations gaining momentum here and taking a part in the future, so I would put more emphasis there. My plan would have educated drivers, through driving less and keeping their vehicles tuned up, burning 8 million gallons of fuel less; through improved gas mileage of vehicles burning 10 million gallons less (The EDIN project was made before the new mileage standards were adopted in the states) and then 7 million gallons saved because we will be using electric cars being charged at solar charging stations.

Since there are several advocates for electric cars on the islands and initiatives have already been made to import the electric cars that savings could be realized within six years. On the other end, educating drivers is a long process and it should probably focus on the young. I see that savings not really materializing until 10 years from when the effort begins. The only thing that is going to slow down the improvement through improvement of gas mileage is people hanging on to older cars.  As gas prices have been high in recent years, the education on the economic benefits of a vehicle with good gas mileage has become known to most residents. This reduction should be fully evident in the Virgin Island within eight years.

The biggest obstacle in the implementation of the plan would be the car-culture. Cars really did not have a big presence on the island until after the mid part of the last century. Those who owned cars before the 60s and 70s were the very rich and the authorities. Car ownership and driving still have a mystique to it on the islands that is not going to be easily washed away.  A gasoline tax collected to improve the mass transit fleet  would probably work as a motivator.

One would like to think that if the islanders started use less gas that the price of gas would drop as demand drops. However, this writer does not feel that demand actually plays a big role in the way gasoline is priced. Its price is based more on how much it costs to extract, to refined, and to ship oil. Even if the demand falls in the Virgin Islands, those three other factors are not going to change.