Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley has unveiled an ambitious plan to tackle Barbados’ chronic traffic congestion, announcing a pilot project and infrastructure reviews designed to make commuting faster, safer and less stressful.
During the Barbados Labour Party’s (BLP) Annual Conference in Queen’s Park yesterday evening, Mottley said starting November 1, Government would begin a pilot project introducing twolane traffic flows in selected areas during peak hours as part of a broader effort to reduce gridlock.
The first phase will be implemented in Station Hill and Collymore Rock in St Michael, and St Lawrence in Christ Church, with two lanes running in the dominant direction during peak hours – into Bridgetown in the morning and out of The City in the evening.
“This is not intended to be cosmetic, it is intended to give you time back – time in your day, gas money saved and maybe the biggest one of all, less stress,” she said. “We want to give commuters a fair shot at a calm morning and a decent evening.”
She explained that the worsening congestion was a result of several factors.
“We have too much traffic in this country and we know it. Some of it is because we’re fixing roads, some of it is because we simply got too many cars, and some of it is because not enough people are opting to use public transport,” she noted, adding that Government’s heavy investment in modernising the Transport Board aims to reverse that trend.
The Prime Minister said the system would include smarter signal timing, improved turning pockets and safer pedestrian crossings.
“This is a trial. It is for you to see how it works and to comment on it. If it works, we keep it. If it doesn’t work, we change it – and for the record, change is not incompetence; change is listening to people.”
Mottley said she has also instructed the Ministry of Transport and Works to conduct a cost-benefit analysis on the possible introduction of highway flyovers – an idea shelved more than a decade ago.
She said traffic reform was an issue that extended beyond convenience, describing it as vital to national productivity and mental well-being.
“When people sit cruel, cruel, cruel in gridlock, what happens? They lose their patience, their temper goes and that affects their mental health. Good Government must, yes, mind the state of our roads, but it must mind the state of our minds as well,” she stressed. ( CLM)
