Premier Ewart Brown missed a golden opportunity to lead by example when he announced Government’s plans to limit the numbers of vehicles on the roads last week.

That’s because Dr. Brown and his Cabinet, through their use of GP cars, are the leading exemplars of the abuse of the one car per household rule in Bermuda. There would have been no better way of showing that the Government was serious about reducing the number of cars on the road than having all Ministers give up their most obvious perk.

Not surprisingly, that was not among the Dr. Brown’s proposals last week.

Instead the package of changes primarily targets expatriates, who will cost the Government no votes.

Some of the changes make sense. Government has made some good progress on making public transport more accessible, but must do more. The crackdown on abuse of assessment numbers is long overdue, and the move to impound vehicles of illegal drivers is also welcome as a safety measure, as is the long-awaited demerits system, although neither of the latter two policies will have a major effect on the amount of traffic.

The moratorium on truck licences will do something to reduce traffic, and should include a crackdown on licence holders. All Bermudians are tired of seeing trucks and vans being used as second cars.

What is not clear is whether this is a total moratorium, with no licences being granted at all, or a cap, in which existing licence holders can replace vehicles or new licence holders can get vehicles when businesses close or scale down.

The most controversial aspect of Dr. Brown’s proposals concerns expatriates owning cars. It would be naïve to think that the Transport Ministry believes this part of the community is solely responsible for the growth in traffic, but it is being made solely responsible for limiting its growth, while Bermudians are being given a free pass, unless and until restrictions on the secondhand car market come into effect.

At the same time, employers are being given an unwanted and unwarranted responsibility, through a yet to be announced formula by which companies employing ten or more non-Bermudians will be given a certain number of car licences and will dole them out to their non-Bermudian employees.

Whether this policy will be enforceable remains to be seen, and it seems likely that it will be abused. One wonders too whether Government itself will be subject to the same policy. Clearly, the main goal of the policy is political, since expatriates cannot vote and there will always be Bermudians who support putting the boot in into expatriates whenever possible.

A better policy on car ownership would be a points system, in which age, family, length of residence in Bermuda, physical needs and the like were all taken into account, and which applied to Bermudians and non-Bermudians alike.

Thus, a 25-year-old single person would have less right to own a car than a couple in their 30s with two school-age children.

Instead, Government has taken the easy way out by targeting non-Bermudians and abrogating its responsibility for granting car licences to employers.

Instead of taking the opportunity to lead by example by reducing the number of GP cars, and then inviting all residents to make a joint sacrifice, Dr. Brown has picked on voiceless — and voteless — expatriates.