Traffic Challenges Over The Weekend Highlighted The Weaknesses in the System

Traffic challenges on the highway Easter Weekend.

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Yesterday motorists faced long lines of traffic on our roads and it is clear that those who are in charge were not prepared for the challenge. They simple did not see it coming which means that we need to take a good look at the persons who we select to lead in national life.

First, after all the Covid-19 restrictions have been lifted and with this long  holiday weekend, I expected the following.

1. Massive traffic pile up on the roads because many persons have not been able to go to the beach in a long time, nor have they been able to go and visit relatives in rural Jamaica.
2. The police force can barely handle the high level of crime and they are overworked at this time. I did not see the officers being able to take full change of the situation yesterday.
3. The weather office sent out a release stating that there was a cold from which would affect the country.
4. Jamaicans have encouraged indiscipline in all areas of national life and I expected that to be played out on our roads in what was building up to be a chaotic situation.

The following actions should have been  taken to mitigate against the traffic challenges over the weekend:

1. Those responsible for managing the traffic on our roads, should have adviced the public from early last week of the expected high level of traffic on our roads during the holiday weekend.
2. Entertainment organizers should have organized bus trips using the JUTC to those events where we expected plenty persons from Kingston to attend.
3. The police should have sections of the highways converted to one way traffic for those coming in to Kingston between certain hours.
4. We should have a Reserve Police Force which could be called out to provide services on our roads during this unusual flow of traffic on the weekend.

We should by now, realize the importance of having a modern rail system for the country. It must be more cost effective to maintain the railroads rather than to maintain highways. It must also be far more cost effective to move persons in larger numbers using a railway system, rather that using the highways. Many citizens are not as brilliant as those who lead us and are sitting comfortably in those expensive seats of power. What some of us have is  far more common sense to come up with solutions to solve our problems and common sense is not as common these days. I will never forget the so called 'little man' who told one PM that the bridge would not last for long because it was not properly build. It was clear that his non-technical comment annoyed the PM at the time but his prediction came though.

Note: The next time you feel frustrated with the system, please come up with a suggestion as to how to make things work and email it to me at SpotOnWithVernon@hotmail.com.

Click on the icon below to view the video taken on the Edward Seaga Highway on the Easter Weekend. Expletives will be heard in this video clip:

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