Dear Editor,
Prof Oneka LaBennett has written one hell of an essay. It provokes thought: How to avoid Self-Devouring Growth. Powerful. Compulsory reading for policy wonks and planners (SN today). Oneka draws teaching lessons from Botswana: How not to do development lest it becomes “Self-Devouring Growth”. She discusses the problems on our roadways – East Bank and East Coast roads (EBPR, ECPR), and much more. I am inspired to make the following comments: Some concepts –
(1) Broadening EBPR and ECPR into 4-lane roads (two vs 2 going opposite ways) is a concept that needs study. These are roads running through Villages, houses and shops on both sides of the roadway. Exiting and turning, donkey carts and cyclists and pedestrians – all using the same road. Broadening the roads to handle the heavy volume of vehicular traffic – while it is still a Village road – is not a workable solution. It is bound to become a roadway of death.
(2) Could a free railway from GT to Airport be factored in to accommodate the passenger traffic? Consider the same idea for the ECPR. (We are an oil country – we can afford to build free/subsidized railways).
(3) Queens Blvd in Queens, NY is a 4-lane (2 vs 2) throughway with stop lights. Service Roads on both sides. It had been known as the Boulevard of Death. (EBPR and ECPR are also blvds of death). Thankfully over the last 15-years or so, something called traffic engineering and speed limits of 25 mph have been introduced – they have all but ended road deaths on Queens Blvd. New traffic signs and redesign aimed at slowing traffic did the trick. This same engineering is much needed in Guyana
There is a need for a highway from the Airport all the way to Rosignol/ New Amsterdam. This way all the vehicles for Berbice County don’t have to go through all the East Coast Villages to get to their destination. Learn the lessons of Botswana, but also learn the lessons of Queens Blvd, the Blvd of Death.
Sincerely,
Mike Persaud
