On Monday last, BBC news reported that a massive traffic jam in China, which extended some 100 km and lasted for nine days had basically ended. One would hardly imagine – under normal circumstances that is – that a traffic jam would make international news. But obviously there is nothing normal about a nine-day, 100 km long traffic jam.
According to news reports the vehicles involved were mostly cargo trucks, and the nine-day crawl along a highway to the country’s capital, Beijing, was the result of heavy traffic, road works and breakdowns. An enormous increase in vehicle use in China in recent years overtook the boom in road building and the authorities there had been looking for ways of easing the congestion. They had announced, earlier this month, plans for what has been referred to as a “straddling bus line,” which will use a combination of solar and electric power and will drive over the traffic in the street. According to the plan, released along with an impressive artist’s depiction of how the straddling bus will look, the buses will ride on tracks on two walls built three metres over the streets. The plan envisages each bus carrying some 1,200 to 1,400 passengers and theorises that they will replace a certain number of vehicles on the roadways. Chinese authorities said the US$77 million project will begin this year and will also, when completed in another year or two, address environmental concerns, China having been ‘outed’ as the largest greenhouse gas emitter and energy consumer in the world.
Even though China attempted to address the burgeoning number of vehicles on its roads by building new ones, it found that it was unable to keep pace. It could have gone the way of restricting vehicle use by imposing high taxes on purchases, or simply decreeing autocratically that there could be no new vehicles for a certain period. But that would have impeded development in more than one industry, and China has remained unerringly on the path to developing itself as a new superpower.
There’s the caveat that one should avoid comparisons as they tend to make us either vain or bitter. However, one cannot help but notice the contrast here. Guyana is no China, quite obviously, but traffic jams of horrendous proportions are not far off for us. They might hardly be nine-day/100 km, but could seriously threaten productivity.
Dodgy statistics released by the Guyana Revenue Authority earlier this year suggest that local authorities are clueless as to the exact number of vehicles on the country’s roadways. But a look around central Georgetown at any given hour Monday to Saturday would reveal that there has been a massive increase. Years ago the current daily volume of traffic was usually seen only around the Christmas holiday season. Parking in the city is almost a nightmare – very few businesses built in recent years have taken customer and staff parking into consideration.
Guyana’s last new ‘highway’ project was the 37-mile Essequibo coast road linking Supenaam and Charity, which was completed in 2001, some seven years after its construction began. At present sections of this road are falling to bits and almost all of the wooden bridges along it are on their last legs. Prior to the completion of the Essequibo Coast Road, the Railway Embankment ‘highway,’ which provides an alternative route for travel along the East Coast Demerara, was completed in 1998. There have been no new major roads since, although a section of the East Bank Demerara highway has been widened and its bridges have been constantly under repair. However, there is need for an alternative roadway leading to the airport; sections of the current road are relentlessly being undermined by the Demerara River. Perhaps though, the new project will be the Lethem Road. It would certainly be a deserving one given what has been occurring there recently.
Meanwhile, there still needs to be a plan to ease the congestion in the city. Car parks would help along with more enforcement of traffic laws, bus stops and further regularizing of public transportation.
