Dear Editor,
I am no expert at anything. I am just a regular road consumer, but I am scared.
I have traversed all of our public roads as a rider, as a passenger and as a driver. I have been driven and drove in several countries of the world. Both of my jobs (before retirement) involved either road usage or vehicle parking management. I am therefore aware of traffic patterns and control, and I had/have relationship with traffic engineers.
Now that we have new management of the Police Service I would suggest that steps be urgently taken to remove threats to life, limb and property on the roads.
First, declare that we do not have distance nor signage nor best construction practices nor repair schedule nor usage patterns to designate any public road as a highway. Therefore we do not need highway speeds.
Second, just admit that the driver education and licensing system is broken. I see a regular litany of bad driving habits every day I condescend to venture out on the road. (I can make flash drive evidence available).
Third, there is little or no official control mechanisms to deal with protecting other road users from indiscriminate drivers. I have seen these same “bad GT drivers” emigrate and become the best drivers in countries where the system is geared to control and penalize errant drivers (and pedestrians).
Now that we have a new Traffic Chief charge him/her with the following;
Remove all the different speed limit signs (incidentally whose bright idea it was to recently erect 65 km on that stretch by Little Diamond /Covent Garden area?) Now we have from Timehri: maximums of 50, then 80, then 50, then 65, then 50, all before reaching GT. Confusing!! Until such time that we construct a real highway the maximum on any Public Road should be 60km. Towns/Village Streets max 40km. Consistency and no confusion!
Trucks have a speed limit by law painted on the right side of the cab. (It’s less than 30km.) All trucks should drive in the left hand (curb) lane only, as should large passenger buses. Smaller buses should have a limit of 50 km. Emergency vehicles must maintain speed limits and road rules.
Declare a month “Traffic Awareness Month” (TAM) . Get some funds (from the security plan?) and print specific vehicular flash cards of at least five and not more than ten items (laminate them?). On the first week get Traffic Ranks to stop every truck (G) and hand out the Truck cards which will include Speed Limit, required age of Driver, Breaking Distance, Proper Use of Air Horn etc. Ask the newspapers to print the relevant card on Sunday week.
Do the same the next week for B vehicle followed by H and M. Remind the small B drivers and conductors that a busload of passengers represent at least 150 extended family members! Do they believe that an airplane pilot is not conscious of that extended responsibility? The P vehicles could have an ongoing campaign as should emergency vehicle drivers. Meet with Transport Officers of large fleet and get them on board the monitoring/control of their drivers. Two of the bad truck driving group on the East Bank Road are the Banks DIH trucks and the Highway Maintenance trucks. I ent talking about the sand trucks!!
At the end of that TAM there should be zero tolerance against moving violators. Just issue tickets!! Of course the Traffic Court system should be instituted and defaulters can represent themselves if they care. Each police vehicle should have a dash cam installed with a system of flash card storage/retrieval. In a few years’ time we should graduate to insurance penalties for bad drivers and rewards for good drivers.
Let me point out that these ideas are not my original thinking, they are out there being used where the lives of people matter and to provide peace of mind, and a good life.
I am sure this plan can be fine-tuned and reduce terror on our roads. Hopefully my scary feeling will abate.
Yours faithfully,
L A Camacho
