[dropcap]T[/dropcap]here is a serious problem happening in our country that you’ll hear in private discussions but not in public forums. I’m talking about the traffic! A quick Google search will show plenty websites selling used cars. Now, nothing is wrong with people buying a car – the problem comes when our roads cannot support the volume! When I was a child it would take 20 minutes to get from the Morne to Rodney Bay, maybe 30 minutes if there was traffic. The commute time has now doubled. The increase in cars also means an increase in accidents. People seem to have forgotten the rules and laws when it comes to driving. Everyone is in a rush to get to where they’re going – or they couldn’t give a damn about it and drive at 20 km/hr! You’re looking for an accident by driving so stupidly. Not only are you slowing all the drivers behind you down but also you’re also probably causing someone to have major road rage – another formula for a reckless accident.
Bus drivers refuse to pull to the side of the road properly to offload or pick up passengers – making drivers swerve into the other lane. Or they simply pull out on to the road, without indicating, without looking to see whether there are cars coming (which there probably are with the increase in traffic), and cause an accident, or at least nearly causing one. It’s no wonder the rest of the public can’t stand them and don’t give them a chance to merge into the traffic. The unfortunate truth is that we’ve lumped most public transport drivers together – the courteous ones and reckless ones – creating a broad stereotype of horrible, rude, and inconsiderate set of drivers. It’s a pleasant surprise to see a mini-bus indicate and wait to be given a chance to go, most times they don’t bother, let the indicator go once before barging their way in front of you, or merge when they’re indicating left!
The thing is, it’s not just taxi drivers, and the general public does it too. If they want to turn left, they pull out into the lane to block on-coming traffic in order to make a driver give them a chance to go. If someone coming the opposite way with a speed, even the speed limit – forcing them to stop suddenly is dangerous because they may hit you, they may be able to come to a stop but so suddenly another vehicle behind them may not be able to stop in time, hitting the first vehicle. You’re not the only person on the road – there are others too.
You’ll also see drivers suddenly stopping to let passengers off, even though there is plenty room on the side to pull over, they don’t want to lose their important spot in the line of traffic. Being just a few cars behind would probably send them mental, so no, they must hold everyone else up. Don’t get me started on people who like to take short cuts. Coming from Gros Islet going into Rodney Bay is a nightmare on an afternoon. Smart drivers decide to turn into Massy Stores Rodney Heights and take that road in front of Bay Gardens Hotel to come out of that junction. Hey dumbasses! You’re causing more traffic! Those who stayed on the main road have to stop to let you come out because you couldn’t stop to realize that doing actually causes the traffic to slow down more. Nope you can’t figure that out at all. Same thing goes on a morning heading up north. Drivers turn in by Corinth and come out by Bois d’Orange. And it’s not just one, two or even three cars – it’s seven and eight and nine! Again, my fellow genius countrymen – you’re slowing traffic down!
The main problem comes back to the infrastructure. We simply do not have the roads to accommodate the volume of cars. There either to be a limit to the number of cars per household or a limit to the number of cars being brought in to the island, and a serious plan on expanding our road systems. Rant done
Side Rant – I must have been sleeping when the memo went out to a number of St. Lucian drivers who decided that our weather so hazy that they need to put their fog lights on. Thanks for temporarily blinding me because of our really thick ‘fog’!
My my I experienced something 2 weekends ago when the accident happened near Almond Morgan. I asked myself where did all those vehicles come from? I was in traffic for 2 hours coming from Rodney Bay to town! And those going up North even longer… we do not have infrastructure to support all these vehicles and the little we have….oh boy, horror! Have you driven on the Millennium highway recently? I am not even gonna rant about that piece of “road”. It literally has swimming pool size holes every other 2 meters!
For such a small place for the life of God I cannot understand what’s going on down there . Rodney Bay and Castries combine makes up the Town of Ochi Rios in Jamaica and they don’t have this kind of traffic jam. To go from Castries to Rodney Bay in my opinion should capture no more than 15 minute to 20 minutes max of any given rush hour day. Carnival or Jazz 45 minute to an hour give or take. I fully understand Vieux-Fortian point of view now when they say all they want to do is go for the entertainment, business or work and then get the hell out back to their quiet island life. The problem is the lack of discipline and no traffic monitor oversight is unbelievable. No traffic cops at peak rush hour; the amount of moving violations that’s take place if summons were been issued on daily basis you would see how fast things would change, not to mention this would be a revenue earner for the state to fun their police force but what do I know. There is need for more stop lights. One at the entrance to the at Bay Walk Mall/ KFC coming out of Bay Gardens is a nightmare. One a Monchi Gap. One at Bonne terre Gap . One before you enter the Cricket Grounds. One at Maracel by Harris Paint. Put red light cameras on all of them $100 EC for violation. Talk to the jackasses at the gas station by the entrance to the Old US Navy Station. Sometimes the station so pack with cars vehicles line up on the Highway to get in , this often have traffic backed up all the way by the round a bout to the cinema all they need is a police oversight at that gas station at rush hour would make such a big difference.
king majesty! you first need to learn how to spell before you comment on articles. word is fund and not fun. Monchy and not Monchi. Marisule and not the Maracel. Know the places in your country for crying out loud. packed and not pack. even grammar too geez. last but not least round a bout is one word.