A bid by police to make the East Bank Public Road safer for travellers resulted in major traffic congestion on Friday.
The Guyana Police Force said that its Traffic Department decided to place traffic cones at areas where vehicles are known to form a third lane.
When contacted yesterday Assistant Commissioner and Public Relations Officer for the Force Royston Andries-Junor stated that during peak periods vehicles take advantage of the wide roadways and form a third lane on the western carriageway at Agricola. To avoid a third lane from forming, he said, traffic cones were put in place so that the two lanes carry through from Eccles to Agricola. He noted that it is wrong to form a third lane given that it’s a two-lane road.
The new arrangement was implemented on Friday evening and this resulted in a major traffic congestion along the East Bank Public Road. A few hours later, the Force stated that the interruption of free flow of traffic on the East Bank corridor was caused by trucks traversing the roadway.
“Please note that all measures which were put in place by the Force’s Traffic Department on the said corridor were not done in any way to stymie the flow of traffic but to ensure that commuters, motorcyclist, cyclists and pedestrians [are] safe when using the roadway. The Force wishes to also state that throughout the peak periods there will be a high visibility of Traffic Ranks to assist in regulating the traffic flow,” the statement added.
Andries-Junor noted that the new arrangement is subject to change and the public will be notified when this is done.
