Seawall roundabout: Guyana’s politicians are the world’s worst

May 21, 2021 Features / Columnists, Freddie Kissoon

Kaieteur News– When the Kitty seawall roundabout by the pump station was being constructed, I wrote two negative columns on it. Friday, April 27, 2018, “Was the seawall roundabout necessary?” and Saturday, May 12, 2018, “The seawall roundabout and the Emperor’s new clothes.”
I was not against the roundabout. My essential point back then was, and one that I still cling to, is that you do not remove traffic lights at a junction just to make the site more beautiful and attractive. Removing traffic lights is removing common sense.
The argument that half of 65 is 34 is something, though unbelievable, far more interesting than the argument that streets do not need traffic signals. How can you ever go wrong with the signals? It allows the free flow of traffic. Without signals, the alternative is incredible chaos where humans behave like jungle beasts. How do I know this?
For years, the signals at Railway Embankment and UG Road did not work.
You should see what humans were transformed into. At the Kitty seawall the APNU+AFC removed the traffic lights and installed the roundabout. It is a traffic nightmare and an infrastructural disaster.
How do I know this? I say boldly to readers that I go on that wall not three times a week, not four times a week but every day with my dog. The vendors from the roundabout to the bandstand can tell you they see me there quite often.
Let us describe what a country is like when traffic signals are removed.
1 – If you are travelling north on Vlissengen Road to go up the East Coast, you make a right swing in the roundabout. But you cannot do so without fear in your heart. Western bound traffic from the East Coast in the morning has the right-of-way and you literally have to take a huge risk to cross over.
2 – Traffic going east on Carifesta Avenue to enter the roundabout, has to stop for vehicles turning right into the roundabout from Vlissengen Road. But they do not stop.
3 – These east bound drivers feel that they don’t have to stop because there is sufficient space for them to proceed even though vehicles are turning in front of them from Vlissengen Road going to connect to the East Coast.
4 – What happens then is that the east bound drivers on Carifesta Avenue brace the east bound drivers who enter from Vlissengen Road. The worldwide regulation in relation to the use of a roundabout is that whoever is first in the roundabout has preference. This does not obtain at the Kitty structure.
Guyana’s first roundabout was done under Prime Minister, Forbes Burnham, and though David Granger proclaims Burnham as his hero, he learnt nothing from Burnham when he, Granger, was president. The first roundabout was at the Cenotaph outside the Bank of Guyana. And guess what? It is governed by the use of traffic lights.
Why did Burnham install signals at that roundabout? Because the use of signals is commonsensical. I would visit the Kitty site each day when the construction was being done.
I will not repeat the contents of those two columns but I told the supervising engineer that there is no way traffic will flow smoothly if there aren’t traffic lights. And it does not flow smoothly but chaotically.
Here is a bet. Let us go to that place at the morning rush hour and if you cannot enter the roundabout without a 10-minute wait then you owe me $50,000. If I lose, I stop this column.
There is a new roundabout going up at Railway Embankment and Sherriff Street. I use that junction each day (more than four times each day). When there were signals there, driving was peaceful. Let’s describe the traffic situation at that new circle. If you are travelling north on Sherriff Street to enter Railway Embankment, you have to make a right turn into the circle. But you have to compete with drivers going south on Sherriff Street who will have the right-of-way so your heart will be in your hand.
If you reach the circle driving west on the Embankment and you want to make a right turn into Sheriff Street, then if you believe in God you have to pray. Since there are no signals, then you have to wait endlessly on the north bound traffic on Sherriff Street before you can leave the circle and enter Sherriff Street. The APNU+AFC regime that implemented the asininity at the Kitty seawall is long gone but it is yet another terrifying mistake made by our politicians that reminds us of the abolition of the train by Forbes Burnham.
(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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