With the Jazz and Arts Festival and T20 World Cup on the horizon, Tourism Minister Dr Ernest Hilaire organisers will need to find means of managing the traffic.

Dr Hilaire suggests a return to the popular park-and-ride system to decentralise traffic along the motorways in the north.

“There’s a traffic management committee that’s been set up to look at the arrangements for the Jazz festival. We will need to return to the park-and-ride system that we implemented in 2007 for Cricket World Cup,” he said.

Dr Hilaire says a water ferry service also remains in the cards with the use of a shuttle service.

“Now we have the added advantage of using sea. We can actually have a ferry service from Castries Harbour all the way to the Marina or Pigeon Point, in the case of Jazz. For cricket, you can drop off at the Marina and take a shuttle to the stadium,” he explained.

For both measures, he says the cooperation of the public is needed. Dr Hilaire encourages citizens to adhere to the rules of any traffic management system put in place by the authorities for smooth and simple operations.

“It would require Saint Lucians to cooperate. Saint Lucians would have to be disciplined, bus drivers would have to be disciplined. Rather than go back to the pickup area, people start walking and the drivers would pick them up halfway, take them to the grounds and people end up having to wait so long because the buses never reach. There’s a lot of discipline that’s required and a lot of cooperation. If we get it right, it would really enhance the experience of everybody, whether it's Cricket or Jazz,” he explained.

The Minister said the official traffic management plan will be made public closer to the commencement of the events.