Princes Town traffic woes

THE EDITOR: I wish to respond to a headline ‘Princes Town plagued by traffic congestion’, Newsday May 18, 2003.

Princes Town sits on a ridge and if you look on either side of the main streets you look downhill. If there is any flat space within the town, that area was created by cutting and filling of an adjoining hillock. So, because of its undulating nature usable flat space is at a premium. This natural phenomenon is the root cause of the sticky traffic congestion here.

On the other hand, traffic pile up is caused by unscrupulous businesses and small vendors. If you pass through the ‘town’ any day it looks like a carnival with all pedestrians walking on the streets, jaywalking through the traffic. It is a big rivalry between traffic and pedestrians just to get ahead. You see, the pavements are packed with vendors so the pedestrians have nowhere else to walk. With ‘Caroni’ in limbo there will be greater fight for limited level space. One brass faced businessman who recently refurbished his place even built a one-metre high ramp on the pavement. If you climb that ramp you have to enter his store.

The Princes Town/San Fernando taxi drivers too, have to be blamed for this daily congestion. A driver, after filling his cab, has to proceed east. When he does so he has three options to exit the town. He may go to Charlotte Street, turn and then pass through the town again which is unlikely, or he may go through Bonanza Street which takes five minutes if the road is clear. His final option is an illegal U-turn that he uses more often than not, thereby disrupting the smooth flow of traffic.

The maxi taxis plying the Princes Town/San Fernando route have a hard time exiting the town. Just imagine they have taken forty-five minutes to reach the head of the maxi taxi line, and then with the help of touts filled their bus. Now they are ready to depart to nowhere; what a frustration with passengers and drivers. Railway Road which they depart allows parking on both sides and with a water truck making its way slowly up the hill it make the blood boil. The water truck, too, has no other exit but through Railway Road.

The authorities in the town do not seem to show any sense of planning. A passenger using the taxi stand in the middle of the town has to cross three streets to embark. It is only on the main street you have a zebra crossing. An empty plot of land and an unoccupied building on the north side of the taxi stand certainly create a condition ripe for chaos. The vendors and vagrants have a field day on that space. If the minister responsible is sensitive to the plight of the town, as an immediate measure he can pave the ‘tasker road’ that bypasses the town. I am sure the authorities have their solutions for the problems of the town.

DHAKELAN  DASS
Princes Town