The importance of medians must be emphasised

Jun 27, 2017 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

Guyana roadways are a death trap. The high levels of societal indiscipline and the poor design of the road system make the roadways accident-prone.
Guyana has a double problem when it comes to road safety. The roads are poorly designed and the road culture is deadly. Asking the police to take action is wasting time. The police themselves need to exercise greater discipline on the roads. You cannot ask law-breakers to enforce the laws, even though it is said that there are many good policemen.
There are constables in Guyana who are driving heavily-tinted vehicles. What moral authority therefore do these constables have to charge anyone who breaks the country’s traffic laws? Of course, SOCU is not asking where these constables get the money to buy the vehicles they have and to maintain it on their small salaries. But SOCU is pelting charges at people, selectively, for not filling out ledgers.
It may have escaped the notice of the authorities that ever since the median was constructed on Carifesta Avenue to place lamp poles and flags of the countries of the Caribbean Community, there have been no fatal accidents on the street.
The median has had unintended consequences. It was built for decorative purposes, but it has drastically reduced fatalities on that strip of roadway by preventing vehicles from overtaking, the major cause of head-on collisions.
This past weekend there was a terrible accident on the Railway Embankment Road. A vehicle, for reasons not yet known, slammed into a bridge, killing one of its passengers and leaving four others injured.
The accident was the talk of the town yesterday. There was no place where you could have gone, where the accident was not being discussed. Some women were seen openly crying upon learning of the death of the young woman. It was sad indeed.
Many others have suffered a similar fate because of the reckless use of our roads. No amount of police campaigns are going to change the road culture in the country or correct the flawed road designs which allow for two-way traffic on narrow roads.
The solution has to be two-fold. Guyana needs an efficient and safe public transportation system. Too many vehicles are on our narrow roadways. This is encouraging indiscipline, congestion and road rage.
An improved public transportation will mean fewer vehicles on the roadway once the system is properly planned, and which includes various options for commuters. One option has to be, using some form of mass transportation to move hundreds of persons at any one time. It can be by boat, using the Demerara River, or it can be by railway from some of the large housing areas to the city. The objective has to be to reduce the number of vehicles on our roads.
The second solution has to be the redesign of our main public roads. They can no longer be two-way roads without a median. Where there are no medians on the East Bank Public Road, the East Coast Public Road, the Linden-Soesdyke Highway, the Corentyne Public Road and the West Demerara Public Road should be redesigned to incorporate medians, where this is physically possible. This will prevent vehicles from overtaking which is the main culprit in head-on collisions. It will cost money- lots of money – but it will save lives.
The redesign of Guyana’s roads must make provision for motor cycles and bicycles. Right now, it is dangerous to be riding either on any public road. Cyclists are at high risk of being run over and the motorcyclists are just as reckless as some of the minibus drivers.
There is no way that any public education or police campaign is going to change the road culture in Guyana. It is not going to happen. Guyana has a lawless road culture. Minibus drivers are no longer the chief culprits. Hire car drivers have become far more lawless. Passengers no longer speak up for their rights, because the majority of other passengers enjoy the lawlessness.
You cannot change that culture of lawlessness overnight. Nor can it be changed without social engineering.

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