Dealing with traffic congestion

I’m writing this letter to appreciate the efforts by the present President to address the problem of traffic congestion by changing the office hours. President Chandrika’s attempt by advancing the clock by half an hour failed as the proposal was not generally acceptable to the people; the primary reason being children’s schooling. If the proposal was implemented children would have had to leave home around 6. The real time might have been a bit too dark for them. I believe that the authorities would have considered the following when they decided on 9.45 as the starting time for work in the private sector.

Time zone impact with Australia and the far east must be considered. Whereas we will have very little time to do business with Australia and no time with New Zealand. The time we have with our main trading partners like Singapore, Japan and China will be narrowed down to two to four hours. On the other hand we will have more time with the West. Private sector employees having school going children will be inconvenienced if they are to drop them at 7.30am and report for work at 9.45am. We can experiment this proposal by implementing it initially in the Colombo and Gampaha districts where the problem is acute.on the other hand we can look at promoting lane driving and discouraging irregular parking.

The Police should act against parking on pedestrian crossings, on bus halts and on the wrong side of the road. In the West and in Singapore parking with one wheel on the curb is an offence.

UPALI WEERASINGHE