Although the City Council recently instituted a line system to curb congestion at the East Coast minibus park, the demarcated zone for operators is quickly becoming too small to serve its function.
Last month, it was announced that the Mayor and City Council in collaboration with the Ministry of Public Infrastructure was establishing a queue system to ease the congestion on the city bus park. While metal poles and chain barriers mark the boundaries for the line system on some parks, it was reported that a few others, including the route 44 park, which serves Georgetown to Mahaica, would only have lines painted on the roadway.
According to a source at Mayor and City Council, the constabulary will soon implement a monitoring and a security system to prevent “hot plating,” whereby drivers load passengers outside of the line.
On any given afternoon, buses crowd the bus park. Although the mandatory queue system has recently been established, drivers still sometimes park rather haphazardly within the demarcated zone.
Up to last Friday, minibuses were lined up and occupying the entire boxed out section.
When Stabroek News enquired, one of the drivers said the buses were actually meant to be parked diagonally, rather than parallel, but drivers tended to disregard that specification.
Another driver said he did not believe the parking space designated for the 44 bus park was adequate as the area was too small. This, he said, sometimes resulted in drivers having to “work the road” as there was no space for them to stop in at the park.
The bus park serves Route 44 operators who ply the route between Georgetown and along the East Coast, including Annandale, Victoria, Enmore and Enterprise. The section that serves Enterprise extends from Commerce Street into Water Street.
On Tuesday, four drivers were arrested and held by city police for parking violations. Stabroek News on Wednesday spoke with one of the drivers, Jamal Ali, who stated that the city police have been pulling persons in for parking outside of yellow lines that mark the new queue system. However, Ali explained that on occasion, the area designated for parking would become packed and drivers would be forced to park along a neighbouring street until a vehicle moves off.
“You see how them buses park here right? Well they got two more buses here and normally we does park at the side deh and when di bus dem full we does come around and come in di park…They seh you nah supposed to park at the back deh, but there is no “no stopping,” “no parking” or anything. Why we ah park deh, because when di park full, we goh hold deh til a bus full fuh come round in we park. We explained that to them,” Ali said.
Ali was taken down to the city constabulary and was eventually released on $5,000 bail.
When it came to an issue of drivers being harassed by the city police, the operators claimed to know of instances where drivers were pulled in. These cases, they all related, were either in relation to touting or parking violations.
