In a high-stakes meeting with the newly appointed director of the Dominican Republic’s national transportation agency Juan Manuel Méndez, the G12 Group — one of the most influential collective organizations in the country’s transportation sector — laid out an ambitious multi-point policy package designed to modernize the nation’s public transit network, cut through chronic urban congestion, and dramatically lower national traffic fatality rates.
William Pérez Figuereo, founding leader of G12 and president of the National Central of Unified Transporters (CNTU), formally presented the full slate of recommendations on the organization’s behalf. The proposals touch nearly every corner of Dominican mobility and road safety, ranging from systemic operational adjustments to long-term sustainability goals. Key priorities laid out by the group include implementing staggered start and end times for both workplaces and educational institutions to spread peak-hour demand across the day, expanding dedicated public transportation corridors to speed up commute times, integrating mandatory road safety training programs directly within transportation worker unions, accelerating the transition to zero-emission electric transit vehicles, and rolling out a nationwide Zero Scrap Plan to phase out aging, unsafe road vehicles.
Beyond core urban adjustments, G12 has put forward targeted initiatives to address underserved communities and gaps in existing transit coverage. The organization calls for strengthened public transit service on overnight routes, expanded state-managed transportation services for K-12 students, and the introduction of a new “school safari” program designed specifically to connect students living in isolated mountain communities to their campuses, a longstanding unmet need in many rural regions of the country. G12 is also pushing for public awareness and incentive programs to encourage daily commuters to leave private passenger vehicles at home and shift to shared public transit options to cut down on congestion and emissions.
To tackle the country’s persistent road safety crisis, G12 is calling for coordinated cross-agency action to drive down annual traffic deaths, demanding that the Dominican traffic enforcement agency DIGESETT and the national transit regulatory institute INTRANT expand their operational presence to all 157 of the country’s municipalities. This universal presence would strengthen regulatory enforcement, expand community-focused road safety education, and improve traffic management capacity in every region of the nation, closing gaps that have left rural and lower-income communities underserved.
One of the most impactful proposed regulatory changes targets heavy freight transportation, which contributes disproportionately to urban congestion and infrastructure wear. G12 recommends implementing targeted restrictions that ban large trucks and other heavy commercial vehicles from core metropolitan area main roads during all peak and midday hours between 6:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m., redirecting these vehicles to the use of outer ring roads to keep central artery traffic flowing smoothly for commuters and public transit.
Closing out the presentation, Pérez Figuereo reaffirmed G12’s longstanding commitment to collaborative problem-solving with national and local transportation authorities, emphasizing that the group’s core goal is to advance shared solutions that cut accident rates, improve daily mobility for all Dominicans, and build a public transportation system that is more efficient, better organized, and far safer for road users of all kinds. The submission of these detailed proposals underscores G12’s stated intention to maintain an active, influential role in shaping the policies and development initiatives that will drive the transformation of the Dominican Republic’s transportation sector in the coming years.