The traffic plan

Mar 21, 2014 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

The authorities have promised that the traffic flow at the corner of Regent and Camp Streets will be improved by the end of April. They are proposing to undertake changes and insert markings at that junction to help relieve the massive build-up that takes place on daily basis at that junction which is regulated by traffic lights.
This seems an ambitious promise being made the authorities. It is indeed a busy junction, but it is also part of a busy block located in the heart of the commercial district. As such, the traffic problems at this junction are just an extension of the congestion within the overall commercial zone. Therefore, merely addressing one junction without regulating the flow throughout the entire business zone, and not just along Camp Street, will not likely have the desired effect.
It will be near impossible to reduce the congestion at Camp and Regent Streets, unless there is a plan for the overall management of traffic within the entire commercial district. As was seen when the traffic lights were reintroduced in 2007, a plan to address a specific concern quickly becomes obsolete in the face of the tremendous growth in vehicular traffic.
Traffic lights are now becoming an impediment to the flow of traffic. Instead of improving traffic, they have become part of the problem. They have served their purpose in regulating traffic for the past seven years. No amount of analyses of traffic-flow will allow these lights to facilitate the smooth and unimpeded flow of traffic in the commercial district.
Traffic lights will have to done away with. Other countries have seen the wisdom of moving towards flyovers and roundabouts. Flyovers, however, would be unaffordable in Guyana. But roundabouts can be implemented. There is certainly a need for a mini-flyover at the junction of the East Bank Public Road and the access road into the Demerara Harbour Bridge. If this is done it will allow for the free movement of traffic from the Bridge onto the East Bank Public Road and it will allow for non-stop traffic to exit the eastern carriageway of the East Bank Public Road into the access road. The traffic lights there can then be deactivated. However flyovers and ramps are extremely costly and if this cannot be afforded, then some diversion of north-bound traffic south of the bridge can be made, so that traffic from the direction of the airport may bypass the bridge. It is understood that a road is being constructed east of the East Bank Public Road. This should help.
Another solution would be to have a movable median from the Harbour Bridge to Alexander Village. In the mornings, the median can be moved to create three lanes of traffic flowing into the city. In the afternoons, the medians can be moved to create three lanes flowing south.
But back to the city! What is needed is a comprehensive traffic management plan. There is supposed to be such a plan that would see the city divided into four quadrants. This programme was to have been launched this month. We are well into half of the month and there has been no announcement about this four-quadrant traffic management plan.
This plan should help with a short term solution to the problem of traffic congestion in the city. But it would help considerably if when that plan is put into effect – and it is hoped that this is done almost immediately – there will be an attempt to reduce the flow of traffic at junctions where there are traffic lights to only three directions. At most junctions with traffic lights, the traffic flows from the four corners, east west north and south. This extends the waiting period for any lane of traffic.
What is needed is a plan to reduce the flow to only three directions. Thus, for example, at certain junctions, instead of traffic flowing north to south; south to north; east to west and west to east; one of the streets should be made a one-way, and this would mean that the lights would only have to regulate traffic in three directions, thus reducing the waiting time. This in turn will reduce the build-up of traffic.

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