CHAOS AND DISORDER IN THE NAME OF DEVELOPMENT

Jun 17, 2011 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

---

The government is extending the four-lane roadway on the East Bank of Demerara. The roadway will go right through from Providence to Diamond. A similar four-lane highway is being built from Better Hope to Golden Grove on the East Coast of Demerara.
While these may seem to be signs of continued progress, the reality is that they will eventually become part of growing chaos, disorder and unplanned development that is taking root in the country. But are these road initiatives going to impact on the growing traffic congestion?
While the government continues to improve its transportation network – and significant progress is being made at present – there are simultaneous developments that are taking place which can erase the progress being made.
Already there is heavy congestion on the East Bank Public Road during peak hours. The large volume of traffic pouring onto that roadway from West Demerara has already forced the authorities at the Harbour Bridge to introduce two-lane, one-way traffic at specified times. But while traffic is moving in one direction during this period, it is stagnant in the other. This innovation therefore represents only a temporary solution to the problem on the East Bank, a problem that is exacerbated by the heavy flow of traffic emanating from the Diamond Housing Scheme.
Persons living in that scheme have to leave home as early as 7 am just to avoid the bottlenecks on the East Bank Public Road, something that the four-lane highway was built to correct.
That volume is not going to be reduced because ill-advisedly the government, without putting in new roadways connecting to the city, has opened up massive new housing schemes along the East Bank. This will make the traffic problem more severe, as more and more persons acquire their own cars. We have too much land and too low a population density for car-pooling to be introduced, but this seems to be the route that Guyana is heading, unless some common sense is introduced.
Perhaps no minister of the government has ever attempted to use the East Bank Public Road between 5:00 and 5:30pm. With the sort of road infrastructure in place, the congestion associated with peak afternoon hours should have abated during this period. It has not. Even at 5:30 pm, the flow of traffic is intense and the East Bank Public Road is a frightening spectacle.
The situation is made worse by the unrealistic speed limits, which in some places limit motorists to 50 km per hour. Just when traffic needs to be speeded up to ensure there is no backlogging, motorists are under the watchful eye of police radars and traffic cops. These speed limits do not make any sense on a highway.
But how can it be called a highway, anymore, when it is treated like a normal street in a town, where businesses are allowed alongside the roadway. This is blind-sighted development.
Instead of halting the grant of new business permits along public roadways, the practice in Guyana has been quite the opposite. Instead of encouraging businesses to be established away from heavily trafficked areas, more and more businesses are being established along the East Bank Public Road.
To compound the situation, even mechanic and vulcanizing shops are operating at the side of the roadway, meaning that there is always the possibility that vehicles can be parked along the thoroughfare, thereby impeding the free flow of traffic. All it takes is one badly parked vehicle to cause a major backup.
Yet the government has not seen the wisdom in restricting businesses along all of the major highways and public roads, something that is now a norm in most developed countries.
The government fully knows that it will have a major problem soon along the East Bank of Demerara, and so there is now talk about reintroducing the railway system. But where will this railway line run and where will the terminals be located when almost every conceivable piece of public land is either being given out or is being eyed by investors?
That train system is not going to happen and is not going to be good for Guyana, for reasons that will be expounded upon in a subsequent column.
In the meantime, the government is also proposing to extend the East Coast Public Road between Better Hope and Golden Grove. Already the traffic situation is becoming a problem from as far away as Cove and John.
So is the government going to allow businesses to line the highway between Better Hope and Golden Grove? Or will the government learn the lessons from the East Bank and pass a cease order on the establishment of all new businesses on the East Coast. Judging from what has taken place on the East Bank and elsewhere, this is not likely to happen.
And therefore what Guyanese can look forward to in the future are a great number of infrastructure projects, all aimed at improving the system of public transportation, but all of which would become undermined because of the lack of action in other areas.
What will result will be chaos and disorder, all in the name of development.

---

---