Dear Editor,
It is difficult to accept that the Traffic Division of the Police Department know so little about traffic management and control. There has not been a single indicator over the last decade that it has learnt anything new about traffic control.
It is obvious that the respective traffic chiefs have never travelled outside of Guyana. Not one of them has generated a single initiative for the improvement of discipline in road transportation generally and the reduction of avoidable accidents, anguish and deaths.
What meagre attempts there have been were only recently in relation to the general Cricket World Cup cosmetics splattered about Georgetown and its environs.
The promise of the installation of badly needed traffic lights has been unfulfilled, at least in terms of the target dates which were publicised. More importantly the preliminary works so far executed indicate no new thinking. It is the same old menu of lights on poles, as if the Traffic Chief and all the others involved have not been to Trinidad & Tobago or Barbados, (not to mention all the other countries they must have also visited), where the lights are hung high across the roadway so that all (fast moving) traffic can see well ahead, and therefore better control speed.
Our experience with ‘polar’ lights is that they succumb to deliberate vandalism, and frequent motor vehicle accidents. These two incidents have largely contributed to their non-functioning, and even disappearance. It is not only that we are repeating our mistakes; but also that we lack vision and will.
The preliminary works are being executed at mostly the same old intersections, and some very obvious ‘new’ ones. But there is no indication that the critical intersection at Conversation Tree and the embankment Road is on the list for installations. It may be true that the Traffic Division is oblivious to the number of (unreported) accidents which take place at that junction daily. It may be even more true that the division does not perceive the potential danger the situation poses.
Equally, if not more critical, is the intersection where the east bank ‘highway’ connects with Mandela Avenue, if in fact these are the correct names (there are no signs to indicate). Since the problem is recognised to the extent that traffic police are placed there from time to time (when it doesn’t rain) surely an appropriate traffic lighting system can be designed and implemented to control the flow of traffic around what should be a traffic island.
In the meantime, less complicated but vital signs are missed – for example indicators (in lights) of approaching ‘exits’ along the four lane highway, where recklessness is indulged by the absence of any speed limit signs. But this is a prevalent absence – check the West Demerara ‘highways’ as well as the east coast.
Of course there is the dumb obduracy in painting stop signs on roadways which fade quickly from use, and of course from the memory of untrained licensed drivers. Needless to say that these ‘road bottom’ signs are useless in a dimly lit night.
On reflection, what appears to be a lack of initiative may just be the consequence of a lack of relevant resources. But there may well be ‘light’ in the tunnel. Wait till the next international event takes place.
Yours faithfully,
Eliah Bijay
