Latest update May 25th, 2026 12:35 AM
CHRISTMAS ALL YEAR LONG
It’s beginning to look like Christmas. In fact from mid last year when the PMM series got going, the traffic situation in the city has taken on the madness that one associates with the festive season.
It seems as if there is no escaping the confusion associated with heavy traffic in Georgetown. Sometimes you breathe a sigh of relief just to get out of it and hope that you never again have to experience that situation again.
Trying to avoid the traffic in the city is like trying to avoid measles. The chances are that you will not escape. Try diverting to side streets and inner city roads and you will immediately discover that hundreds of drivers had the very same idea as you and therefore it would have been much better if you had stayed on the main roads.
It is not going to get any better. In fact mayhem is going to descend on the commercial districts within the next few weeks as the Christmas shopping commences. By the time the holidays get closer, the police will be at their wits end to control the situation.
The problem is urbanization and the location of too many businesses within the city. The problem is also the total disregard for zoning which has seen businesses prop up all over the place, thereby compounding the problems that are faced by motorists.
What makes it even worse is the fact that too many of the top schools in Guyana are located in Georgetown. This means that whether or not parents want to come into the city, they are forced to do so in order to bring their children to school.
Then there is the acute shortage of parking. There is a need for more public parking in the city, not to mention the long overdue need to rationalize the bus and car parks which have long been chaotic.
These are problems which cannot be solved by the Road Safety Council. When the government therefore speaks about road signs and traffic education and reengineering roads, it must also consider the problems of zoning which it has created and which will lead to mass chaos on the roadways unless there are solutions implemented to deal with the problem.
It is now evident that a new roadway is needed on the East Bank of Demerara. Widening the roadway is a waste of time and money. There is a dam which runs aback of Eccles and which can bring traffic from as far as Diamond right out into the city, aback of the Sanata Complex. There is an unhitched roadway from that location joining the main public road which would mean that if it is used there is no need for traffic to merge with the usual traffic at the Rahaman’s turn bypass.
These are options which must be pursued immediately since widening the road from Diamond to Grove is not going to solve any traffic problems.
There is also heavy traffic each day traversing the Demerara Harbour Bridge so much so that at times, the bridge has to be closed to one way traffic only. This suggests problems with demographic shifts which have not been accompanied by other development that would reduce congestion during peak hours.
Zoning is vital if this problem is going to be addressed. The government has got to stop this craziness of business propping up all over the place.
The four-lane highway is already narrow and yet businesses seem to be propping up almost monthly on that stretch of road. The practice in most developed countries is that no businesses are allowed alongside major highways and while what we call a highway may not be the same as what exists in those countries, the principle is the same.
You do not want to have vehicles stopping and parking on a major public road. Yet in Guyana, it seems as if the properties alongside major roadways are considered prime real estate for businesses. This should not be. There should be commercial zones created outside of these major roadways so as to allow free flowing traffic at all times on these public thoroughfares.
All that is required is for an immediate freeze on new businesses being permitted to operate on properties leading to the public roads.
New industrial and commercial zones need to be created and these need to be created outside of the existing commercial areas so as to reduce traffic congestion. Unless this happens, it will be Christmas traffic all year long.
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