Smart highways

TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT and control is the next big problem that Jamaica must fix. New opportunities are being provided for the movement of goods and people through the expanding road network which offers economic and social benefits by connecting people to jobs, students to school and distributors to their markets.

As such, the challenge of efficiently managing traffic in our major cities and towns has grown exponentially and the negative effects are worryingly translating into death and carnage on some of our better roads.

We keep returning to the subject of road safety in this space, because the body count of road fatalities affecting those in their most productive years keep growing. Recent fatalities in the parish of Trelawny come readily to mind. These accidents help to demonstrate the point that building spanking, sleek highways will not make our roads any safer.

What will in fact make the road network flow smoothly and efficiently is the maintenance of roads that are properly constructed with reduced risk of accident foremost. Lighting and proper signage will also enhance efforts to improve road safety.

In most cases, speeding is the cause of these accidents. These accidents are preventable. But even with speed traps mounted on highways and notwithstanding substantial increases for traffic violations, motorists continue to hurl down highways with total disregard for the safety of their passengers and other road users.

ENFORCEMENT OF TRAFFIC RULES

Here we must reiterate the point, the enforcement of traffic rules and regulations must form a critical plank of the overall accident prevention strategy. Faced with stiffer penalties for traffic violations, the average motorist could become compliant and change his habits. At least, this seems to be the hope of the police.

We submit that the time has come for some hard imaginative thinking to be done within the Traffic Department of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) to devise new methods of identifying and punishing traffic violators. The JCF desperately needs to put technology to work in the current environment.

It is simply not enough to build highways and put them on display. Having constructed these new roadways there needs to be effective monitoring and, if it is warranted, the installation of mitigation techniques.

Commentators have repeatedly alluded to a flaw in the design of the Mammee Bay roundabout that leads into Ocho Rios, St Ann. Jammed as it is in peak periods, with uncertainty about lane changes and poor signage, it is obvious that some kind of corridor access management intervention is necessary in this area. Surely, the National Works Agency and the St Ann Municipal Authority have looked into these criticisms? If there are in fact reasons to be concerned these ought to be urgently addressed.

Conversations about highway expansion in today’s age should be taking place within the context of design strategies that incorporate renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind. But for us here in Jamaica, the idea of addressing the environmental effects, including carbon emissions, has not even entered the conversation. We need to use the available tools to implement solutions that will improve safety, reduce traffic jam, lower pollution, enhance connectivity and generally contribute to a better quality of life for the citizens.

Hopefully, some sustainable solutions are on the way.