The influx of cars

Dec 14, 2010 Editorial

There are going to be some serious headaches for the people using the streets in the coming days. Those who drive may find that they may have to park and walk long distances because the streets are going to be congested and parking has never been at a premium in the city.
Already motorists are finding out that the volume of cars has increased. Even before this increase, driving about the city at Christmas time was a nightmare.
Over the past five years there has been an addition of some 40,000 vehicles on the streets. And there would have been more had some of them not crashed at the hands of reckless drivers.
But this nightmare is not confined to the streets of Georgetown. People coming into the city from East Bank Demerara are now finding that traffic is reduced to a crawl when the flow reaches the area outside the Demerara Harbour Bridge.
One can only imagine what things would have been like had there not been a four-lane highway replacing the existing two-lane strip that once passed there.
The building up of traffic at the approaches to the city is due in part to the roadwork being undertaken by some contractors whose task it is to build some bridges and culverts along that stretch of roadway. Guyana’s work ethic does not allow the contractors to operate when traffic is at its lowest. We simply do not consider working throughout the night something necessary.
If things were bad last year they are going to be much worse this year. An additional 30,000 vehicles appeared on the roads over the last three years. Two years ago, the Commissioner General of the Guyana Revenue Authority was quick to congratulate the buyers of vehicles when he announced that the sale of the PLL series had broken all records.
For the records the PMM series shattered the record set by the PLL series and from all appearances the PNN series would surpass even the newest record. That series officially came into force on October 22, last, and already 1,200 cars have been sold, 200 of them over the past five days.
Many motorists have taken to walking with a companion so that they do not have to worry about parking. They stop the car at any location other than a parking spot with the passenger inside and go about their business. The passenger is responsible for moving the car in the event of unwanted police action or in the event that the car may have blocked a legally parked vehicle.
Observers are stunned at the rate of vehicle sales. It is not that there has been a significant boom in the economy nor did a significant group of people make an economic windfall. It must be that the deals are most rewarding or that people are buying something that appears to be good at first glance but which would cost the buyer in the long run.
This influx of cars has implications for the roadways not only because of the congestion but also for the life of the roadway—the higher the volume of traffic the shorter the lifespan. But that apart, there is a limit to how many cars can traverse the streets. Indeed, there are many streets in the city that would have been available for traffic had they not become impassable, courtesy of the potholes and craters.
Contractors awarded tenders to build roadways would have to change the specifications that they used a few years ago, especially if they are building the roads to last for a certain time. Roads wear according to the volume of traffic.
There are other implications for the country. For every car the importers or auto spares dealers would have to import the corresponding spares. This means greater diversion of foreign currency. One must now hope that the age of the vehicles and their condition would not hasten repairs.

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