Dear Editor,
Georgetown is our capital city but it seems to be neglected in so many ways because of so many reasons. I will now speak about my daily experiences on Durban Street since I go to the Stabroek Market almost every day riding a motor cycle or driving a car. If health-wise you are suffering from low body pressure, commute on Durban Street, the whole of it from High Street to Mandela Ave, you are bound to get well. Scientists have found out that commuting on rough surfaces like this one increases your body pressure. “Andrew Baum, PhD, professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Pittsburgh, has done studies showing that sitting in traffic or commuting in general can raise blood pressure and irritability.”
This road is terribly bumpy. The holes and patches keep the vehicles rising and falling throughout the journey and so is your inside. I can imagine the destruction caused not only to the healthy commuters but also to the vehicles which traverse this roadway continually. Some mending patches are two or three inches higher than the road, and they are numerous for people who drive along this continually bumpy road. I would like a few leaders, including our president and the minister for roads to use it just once.
It is shameful that the mayor and city council cannot receive monies to do what is necessary to make our Garden City pleasant to all users including foreigners who visit, particularly now, because of the oil boom.
One has to be watchful since it is important to be extra careful when driving on such rough roads.
One cannot only lose control of the unbalanced vehicle because of the potholes and roughness; one also loses because rough roads accelerate tires and suspension wearing process. This has happened to me as I will explain. One night I was returning from a ‘wake’ where I had a couple of beers with friends. Whenever I consume alcohol, I am even more careful in riding my motor cycle; so I travelled east along Hadfield Street which I often use from Vlissengen Road to Mandela Ave. It was after ten that night without much light in that area. All of a sudden my front wheel landed in a pothole and also the back wheel. Praise God, I often hold my cycle handle firmly when riding. I wondered what happened to the wheels. I was safe. I have never seen a pothole in that part of the road before and I use it regularly.
The next day I checked it out and I realized that if my speed was substantially faster, forty or fifty kilometers per hour, I would have hurt myself by a fall on the roadway. One week later my rear tyre had to be changed because of a slit shown to me by a motor cyclist at a traffic light. I thanked him for alerting me and praised God for the revelation. My rear tyre must have suffered from that huge pothole just east of John Street along Hadfield Street. Although sections of the street was repaired the pothole still exists after three months. This is not the only bumpy rough road in and around. I am asking that patching of the roads in Georgetown or wherever be done by workers with skills, the right tools, technology, and experience.
Sincerely,
H. Henry
