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Municipal PRO calls for execution of city development plan
– in light of increasing traffic congestion
The city of Georgetown is in dire need of radical changes in order to address the traffic congestion that obtains on a daily basis. However, this growing state of affairs is in fact one that was long recognised as an area to be urgently tackled.
M&CC PRO,
Royston King
In fact, according to the ‘Draft Greater Georgetown Development Plan (Planning Scheme) 2001-2010’ that was completed by Chartered Town Planner, Professor Akhtar Khan, “parking control is one of the main ways to restrain vehicle usage and thus reduce congestion.”
Professor Khan had pointed to the need for off-street car parking spaces to meet the needs of shopping centres, even as he underscored that “on-street parking controls are also required to reduce curb-side parking, particularly around shopping centres.”
The Draft Plan, this publication understands, was presented to the Georgetown Municipality, the Central Housing and Planning Authority, and was even accepted by Cabinet, but no moves were made towards its implementation, although the traffic congestion in the city has increased considerably.
According to Public Relations Officer (PRO), Royston King, the parking situation in the capital city is one that has been gaining the attention of the municipality. Moreover, he noted that the Mayor and City Council (M&CC) had long accepted the ‘Professor Akthar Khan Plan’, which suggests, among other things, that contractors, particularly those involved in constructing multi-storey buildings, ensure that there is on-site parking.
“This has not happened and this is one of the reasons we are facing the challenge of congestion in the city, because people are parking their vehicles wherever they see space…If you go down Camp Street, along Regent Street, certain parts of Water Street, around Stabroek, or some other streets (in the city), you will see the problem we have with traffic congestion, because builders are not making provision for on-site parking,” King asserted.
He emphasised that the municipality is faced with an undeniable “worrying problem” which is in fact something that must be addressed.
“We continue to import vehicles; we continue to have a limited number of roadways and we have not seen an increase in the construction of parking facilities and that is why we have the challenge of traffic congestion, particularly in the heart of the city,” the PRO observed.
It was some years ago that City Mayor Hamilton Green had proposed the “ring roads” concept to address the city challenge. This tactic is one that is designed to ensure that too many vehicles are not allowed to park within the city to create a state of congestion.
A similar hypothesis was presented by Khan in the Development Plan which speaks to the notion that “many local traffic problems are best handled by traffic management rather than by road constructions.”
A typical situation of congestion along Regent Street, Georgetown.
Moreover, the implementation of the “ring roads” type arrangement was outlined as a critical need in the city. This, according to Khan’s plan, could be realised if a proposal for four minibus terminals is strategically put in place to help reduce congestion. The plan highlights, for instance, the possibility of establishing a terminal at the old railway station in North Cummingsburg, Georgetown, for minibuses coming from the East Coast.
In the initial stages, it was pointed out, that some of the minibuses could be allowed to drop passengers near the centre and then return to park at the terminal, but no waiting will be permitted in the centre of the city.
Other terminals were also touted for Southern and Western routes, and according to Khan’s Plan “these new terminal locations will also help street vendors move from the Stabroek Market and Regent Street areas.”
And since the existing theory suggests that “vendors usually move with the public, and the public moves with the public transportation,” it is anticipated that congestion of both a vehicular and human nature could be reduced.
Currently the situation that obtains, according to King, “is that everybody is coming into the city and everybody is parking in the city, and that is why we are having this serious problem…”
As such, he is convinced that there is no time like the present to implement Khan’s Georgetown Development Plan.
“In the face of all that is happening, we need to reorganise and remodel the city of Georgetown to allow it to be on par with modern cities of the world; and we really need to do that now,”King stressed.
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