Quadrants plan for city to curb congestion

Last Updated on Saturday, 26 December 2015, 21:00 by GxMedia

Georgetown is to be divided into four quadrants towards easing traffic congestion in the city, Minister of Home Affairs Clement Rohee told the media on Friday.

Cabinet has granted approved for the plan which will see Georgetown divided into four quadrants; North West, North East, South East and South West. A commencement date of March 2014 has been set by the Ministry of Home Affairs to commence the project.

This however, has to be preceded by a public relations campaign to inform citizens of the new traffic system, the Minister said.

This decision was taken following a comprehensive analysis of traffic congestion by the National Commission on Law and Order (NCLO,) which held discussions with stakeholders. The NCLO which was tasked with reviewing and identifying problems and weaknesses in the legislative, organisational and administrative aspects of law and order, held numerous meetings with stakeholders, during which it was proposed that a series of complementary one-way streets be introduced to control the direction and flow of vehicular traffic and ease the daily congestion, Minister Rohee said.

In light of the increase in road accidents, the Home Affairs Ministry has been employing several initiatives to reduced carnage on the road.

In this regard as recently as January 2, a meeting was convened with the Guyana National Road Safety Council, the Guyana Police Force (GPF), and the Guyana Minibus Association to discuss ways in which this matter can be addressed.

At the meeting, it was highlighted that the main causes for fatal accidents for 2013 was speeding, inattentiveness and drinking under the influence of alcohol.

The main victims are pedestrians with the involvement of private vehicles occurring between midday and evening hours and between evening hours to midnight on Sundays and Fridays involving young drivers between 16 to 24 years of age and between 25 to 33 years of age.

Some of the recommendations taken include the holding of seminars to educate young drivers on proper use of the road and ensuring that they are trained before they are issued with a driver’s licence, monitoring of night clubs by the Guyana Police Force (GPF) during the 23:00 hrs to 03:00 hrs period, the setting of targets by the Guyana Police Force to reduce the number of road accidents, and consequently, heighten enforcement and the hosting of a national Conference on Road Safety.

To bring down fatal accidents and road accidents in general, between 2010 and 2013 the Ministry of Home Affairs procured and delivered to the GPF 18 breathalyser machines with printers and 400 mouthpieces, as well as 29 radar guns.

Several recommendations recently advanced by the APNU towards road safety which were found agreeable and implementable in principle were also analysed.