Four-lane highways are a death trap

May 20, 2021 Features / Columnists, Peeping Tom

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The Government is on a four-lane fast track. It is proposing to build four-lane roadways all across Guyana but it does not have clue about the problems these infrastructural projects will create.

Recently, the Government announced that supporting infrastructure arising from the oil and gas economy will involve a series of four-lane roads and highways. For example, a four-lane roadway is being proposed to link the western end of the Demerara Harbour Bridge to Parika. This is in addition to the existing four-lane West Coast Public Road.

A four-lane highway is also being mooted for the East Coast, right up to Golden Grove. It is not sure how this four-lane road will be constructed since there is little space available for the widening of the roadway between Buxton and Golden Grove. But perhaps the road will take in part of the living rooms of residents along that thoroughfare.

There is also a plan for a four-lane highway to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport. This is separate from the existing East Bank Public Road, parts of which are already four-lane.

A four-lane road for Sheriff Street to Mandela Avenue is already under construction. In fact, these works started since 2014 but were never completed.

The Government is also announcing that four-lane roads will be extended to Berbice and the Essequibo Coast. And this is being done in the name of supporting infrastructure, even though it is not clear just what it is supporting.

It certainly cannot be about getting the travelling public to their destinations faster. It takes more than a four-lane highway to do this and the failure of proper planning has made a mockery of the huge sums, which have been expended on constructing these four-lane highways and roads.

For example, billions of dollars have been spent on widening large sections of the East Coast Public Road to a four-lane roadway. However, it seems that little thought went into this process. Instead of reducing the time it takes to get from one extreme of that roadway to the other, it now takes far longer to traverse that roadway. The four-lane roadway has not therefore delivered in respect to reduced travelling time.

One of the reasons for this is because Guyana’s road network is arranged in a grid. When the East Coast Public Road was a two-lane road, it was easier for traffic exiting the villages to cross from one lane to the next. But with four lanes this is no longer the case and therefore a system of traffic lights had to be installed – on a four-lane highway.

Between Annandale and Montrose there is a traffic light almost every 150 meters. This is bound to result in a long line of vehicles. Also, some smart Alec has decided that on a four-lane highway on the East Coast there should be a reduction in the speed limit in certain sections from 80 kmh to 65 kmh and, in another section, to 50 kmh. This shows that the authorities have no idea about what should be expected on a four-lane highway.

To compound the problem is the practice of the local authorities and the Central Planning and Housing Authority are allowing for the establishment of more businesses along the perimeters of the four-lane highway. These businesses have customers and no provision has been made for off-road customer parking.  As such, the customers park on the roadway thereby reducing the four lanes to two lanes and increasing the build-up of traffic.

If businesses have to be allowed along the perimeters of highways, there should be another access road, parallel to the highway. But vehicles should not be allowed to be parking on the highway or to be stopping of pulling off from in front of business places onto the highway. The government is effectively providing asphalted parking, at taxpayers’ expense to these businesses. What should be the cycling and pedestrian lane is now used for parking on most public highways from Corriverton to Charity.

The proliferation of businesses along our public roads is the complete neutralising of the cycling lanes. The customers of these businesses park their vehicles on the cycling lane, which means that cyclists now have to use the vehicular lane traffic, thus increasing the risk of a serious accident. But do not tell that to the experts who are approving of the establishment of the businesses, or those who are establishing the speed limits on these roads.

It makes no sense constructing four-lane highways. These highways are not suited to the layout of human settlements. The four-lane roads are not improving traffic flow and have become a death trap for pedestrians and cyclists.

The government should rethink building four-lane highways. Instead, they should focus on building more two-lane access roads and additional roads behind the villages to take off the increase in vehicular traffic and to get people to and from their destination faster.

But why am I saying this when the government is impervious to constructive criticism?

(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of this newspaper.)

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