Common sense against Vision 2020

THE EDITOR: The solution to solving the Wrightson Road bottleneck is a very simple one. On each side of this road we have ten feet wide pavements, the traffic island is at least twelve feet wide. We can use two feet wide culverts to replace the traffic island. Six feet wide pavements can replace those monsters that not too many people use. Landfill can widen the area around the lighthouse. Traffic Branch must be relocated. (Doesn’t anyone see the daily chaos?) I am sure we can find some free land (ask a squatter, or better yet Pan Trinbago) somewhere to modernise (there is something now called computers) and house this important department. (I am asking the PM to give  priority to this project over the relocation of parliament.) Install modern traffic lights and well-marked pedestrian lines for our most important asset. For our environmentalists, the trees will be replaced by hanging flowerpots. (Visit Canadian cities for know how). About twenty feet of extra width can turn this into a six-lane roadway.

With accommodations for exits and merges, we can have at least two free-flowing lanes at all times. How about turning the Bus Route and the Eastern Main Road each into one-way flows opened to all traffic from Port-of-Spain to Tunapuna. With modern traffic lights and well-marked pedestrian lines, we can have four free-flowing lanes each way. Build one-way access road ways to these routes for both pedestrians and vehicles. Install lighted (people friendly), covered taxi shelters. This is doable, and will surely eliminate the congestion on the Eastern Main Road making it people friendly to those of us who don’t prefer maxis. For the VIPs, they will still have their free traffic flow, but will get an added bonus “to see how the other side lives.” The government will save by not having to issue passes.

I cannot understand how anyone can justify that the Bus Route brings added benefit to a selected few users to get to their important destination on time. If there is merit to this way of thinking, the question waiting to be asked is how come we don’t have similar routes for example in the south where traffic is just as severe. Why can’t we for once think of all our people as owning up to the same rights? If you ask me, it is only to make people with the likes of Abu Bakr and police (with their countless shopping for their girlfriends trips) think they are better than us. How much are these projects going to cost, and where is the money for funding to come from you ask? It is quite very simple. We are spending over five hundred million dollars per year on URP and CEPEP, not counting the Ministry of Works with little or nothing to show for it except a few painted pebbles.

You know we can build a new airport every two years with this money. (Every four years under the other guys.) With this wasted money, we can build these projects many times over. And with the explicit contractual understanding that at least twenty five percent of the workers needed are hired as new trainees. The government will have something to show off as money well spent. Improved infrastructure. No traffic jams. The Unions will be happy. The population will see advancement. The VIP’s and police’s girlfriends will be mad as hell. And most importantly, the people, our people, our most important asset will gain in wealth, in education, self-worth and belonging. Better than painting pebbles to make a ten days. A peek at 2020 vision you say? No, just common sense.

NIZAM MOHAMMED
San Juan