Traffic congestion on the roads in Barbados has always been horrendous as it is in most countries at peak hour. In recent years with the increase in the number of vehicles licensed and unlicensed on Barbados roads peak time has to be redefined.

The reopening of schools for the autumn term, relaxing of Covid 19 protocols, aggressive road rehabilitation resulting in closures have combined to create chaos. It is not acceptable the HOURS spent traveling to work, school and other engagements on a 166 square mile island. What is happening is an indictment on the state of ‘development’. 

How many times commentators in this space and elsewhere have lamented the lack of planning of housing and road development, transportation management, placement roundabouts (why do we permit motorists to block through-traffic at roundabouts if the exit is jammed?). Let us not forget an urgent need for a waste to energy program. The blogmaster can point to many visible examples of a lack of vision and poor execution responsible for the current comatose state.

The focus today is the time spent on the roads by locals which must negatively be impacting productivity and emotional well being. It is embarrassing at this stage of development that an individual’s first objective is to purchase a Suzuki Swift. How can a 166 square mile island support 150,000+ vehicles on what has been described at one of the world’s dense network of roads? There is the opportunity to highlight the average Joe/Jane owns more than one cellphone to access FLOW or DIGICEL. 

Who is the minister of transportation again? Does it matter the name? How many vehicles do we observe daily on the roads with license plate stickers with 2020 dates? Why does it take so long to implement projects designed to improve the current situation and instead it makes it worse with a clawback necessary to save face? Sensible citizens are made to feel embarrassed when those responsible are not held accountable. In fact there is the feeling that many elected to serve the public do not feel obligated to communicate with taxpayers. A good example is the ‘absolute’ mess unravelling with the NEW TRIDENT ID CARD. So far not a coherent utterance from the invisible Minister Davidson Ishmael (the blogmaster had to Google the name to get it right). 

It is obvious Minister Mia Mottley is operating at a different level to her parliamentary colleagues. The reason given by Mottley for selecting – not once but twice – a bloated Cabinet was to be able to attend to the job of rebuilding a weak economy. Are we there yet? Can the public look to alternative representation in the political and NGO spheres to maintain tension on those elected to serve the public?

Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice, shame on me…

Will the real leaders please stand up!

144 responses to “Chaos on Our Roads, Here, There and Everywhere”


  1. Should the DLP be serious about boosting eyes on this meeting, they need to broaden the base for viewership. Limiting it to Facebook only is too narrow a funnel through which their message will be broadcast. Why not a YouTube channel as an option?


  2. @ David

    Why is it “embarrassing at this stage of development that an individual’s first objective is to purchase a Suzuki Swift?”

    What do you think is responsible for people making that choice?

    As I mentioned previously on another blog, ‘government’ needs to improve the efficiency and reliability of the public transport system.

    You mentioned the reopening of schools, which is always accompanied by congestion of traffic.
    Nowadays it’s the ‘in thing’ for people to leave work and ‘pick up’ their children from school.
    ‘Back in the day’ I had to wait until my father finished work before he came for me from school.
    I joined the Boys’ Scouts and participated in other after school activities to pass the time waiting for him to come.

    Pass through Government Hill any afternoon around 2 PM, and you’ll notice a long queue of cars going into St. Winifred’s school, blocking traffic going in that direction.


  3. Our honourable government is doing everything right when it comes to transport. If we build even more roads, we will get even more cars. Instead, I recommend deconstructing the roads to make it harder for people to drive. Walking or donkey riding are much healthier, given the poor health of our natives.


  4. @ Artax
    Blame it on people who buy cars. That’s the normal approach. Don’t blame it on the failure to have a proper public transportation system.
    People moved out of the urban areas into the country. They still needed to get to Bridgetown to work. Country schools were closer in miles only but there was limited accessibility and having the children in schools in the urban areas was far more convenient. And that has not changed. Rural public transportation is still poor. Where are the cross country buses ?
    It will only get worse.
    The article is similar to the trafffic : congested.
    Peace


  5. @FearPlay
    In the 2018 election it was
    obvious that the DLP was not as savvy with new media as the BLP.

    I do not recall if there was such a marked difference in the 2023 election, but the lack of such a memory told me gap was not as wide. However, the messaging at times was very poor; remember Freundel and the ‘glorious years’.

    The BLP will make mistakes, but the DLP needs to pay attention to its own messages and ensure, as you pointed out, the widest delivery of its message.

    Ronnie O cannot just focus on the out of control antics of the BLP. Messages may need to be ‘vetted’ before delivery, employing folks with expertise in delivering messages to the widest audience via the new media must also be a part of his plan.


  6. Random thoughts
    2023=2022… Or perhaps I am seeing the future unfolding?

    Would love to see Mia attempt a 30-0 threepeat in less than five years. Does the ‘new’ constitution allow it?
    —x—
    It is somewhat amusing.

    First we have the naysayers .. those who harp on what is wrong with Barbados.

    Then we have those who tells us of the many things that need fixing.

    How do you see it? Glass half empty or glass half full?


  7. Barbados is doing perfectly well.

    Mia the leader is operating above her Ministers in the control of the white man IMF with a broken island where nothing works well except complaining, BEGGING and borrowing.

    Yet is the greatest leader the island and the Caribbean has ever known.

    A sign that the 11 plus is truly a failure along with the big name schools that Mia and the same leaders come from on the island now controlled by another white colonial Master the IMF where countries go to when they are total FAILURES for help..

  8. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    people are moving away from repetitive talk shops that produce nothing year after year………….same old complaints for the last 40 YEARS……no solutions…

    if you see something is wrong….and you have a solution ,,,ACT…

    less talk, more action.


  9. @Artax

    Stating a truism. Back in the day the objective was to secure a piece of land or sone appreciating asset.


  10. @William

    Per usual you blame the messenger. The arguments you are presenting are not dissimilar to what we heard in response to those who had concerns about the role of credit agencies and the rise of the derivatives market.

    What cannot be refuted is the behaviour of consumers in the current market including Barbados and the inevitable result that will come. The blogmaster is simply stating that it is an embarrassment to be where we are with our level of thinking, you should note this is a global behavioural problem.


  11. @ David

    Ironically, a few days ago, I was in a discussion in which some persons said many youngsters nowadays are not interested in owning their own homes…… it isn’t a priority as it was years ago. They prefer to rent instead.

    Some of the reasons given for that choice were, they wouldn’t have to pay land tax or be responsible for maintaining the property and, rent, in some cases, is much cheaper than the burden of paying a 25 or 30 year mortgage.

    A few years ago, I saw a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom wall house, located in Pillersdorf, Grazettes, St. Michael, advertised for sale on CaribList, for $330,000.
    I was told the owner was unfortunately involved in an accident, which prevented him from working and, by extension, repaying the bank.
    The house was eventually placed on the market, for sale.
    Banks, especially those owned by the Trinidadians, are, for “want of a better word,’ heartless.
    Those types of situations are also among the reasons why people avoid mortgages and owning their own homes.


  12. Blame it on people who buy cars. That’s the normal approach. Don’t blame it on the failure to have a proper public transportation system.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Even if the island had a proper transport system would still have the overcrowding on the road.

    The ignorant black bajans loves their cars and status symbol to brag that they like to pick their children and drop off at school as a bragging right.

    The island needs more financial hardship to bring them to their knees and make them use more commonsense.


  13. @Artax

    The question to ask is why isn’t it a priority. Is it a case of changing values, a response to escalating real estate price? How do these changing values mesh with the national crisis we find ourselves.


  14. William Skinner September 25, 2022 9:08 AM #: “Blame it on people who buy cars. That’s the normal approach. Don’t blame it on the failure to have a proper public transportation system.”

    @ Mr. Skinner

    Remember, we had a similar ‘discussion’ last week on another blog.
    As I ‘said,’ there isn’t any denying that the island’s unreliable, inefficient public transportation service is ONE of the factors leading to an increase in the demand for vehicles.

    And, also remember the silly responses to suggesting ‘government’ needs to IMPROVE the efficiency and reliability of the public transport system.

    RE: “Rural public transportation is still poor. Where are the cross country buses?”

    The situation becomes worst when Transport Board has to take several buses from its limited daily availability of units per day, to use as school buses, thereby causing further inconvenience to passengers going to work on mornings and trying to get home on evenings.


  15. @NorrisSeptember 25, 2022 11:20 AM

    I might add that the cars were bought with stolen money, namely the money of foreign creditors who had to give up a lot of money two years ago.

    The island will not survive a second debt cut. Time to shift priorities, strengthen the plantation economy and educate fewer UWI students with far too many cars.


  16. David
    Welcome back!

    But you can’t have it both ways, pun intended!

    One the one hand, you want to be an advout follower of Western style capitalism.

    And on the other, there shall never be any sustained radical critique of its failings and the misleadership class so central. Your petty governance.

    But when your capitalist ideals work to perfection and delivers the false economies evidenced by irrational importation and antidevelopment you simplify this phenomenon by laying the blame on the propagandized, television commercialized consumers.

    David, is it not past time for more sustainable arguments?

    For these 11+ renderings are getting a bit staid.😂


  17. might add that the cars were bought with stolen money, namely the money of foreign creditors who had to give up a lot of money two years ago.

    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

    Don’t worry their asses have been exposed to overseas creditors that’s why in the hands of the IMF for countries who are failures.


  18. “The question to ask is why isn’t it a priority.”

    @ David

    Why should we ask why it is no longer a priority?

    Shouldn’t people be entitled to choose what or not are their priorities?

    You’re reacting as though owning property is a ‘compulsory obligation’ for Barbadians.
    That they are legally bound to purchase house and land…… and, have committed an unforgivable sin if they choose otherwise.

    The reality is, while some people prefer to rent, others are building homes, as is seen across the island.
    Unfortunately, over the past few months, there has been a stead increase in the cost of building materials, especially sand and cement blocks.
    One would’ve also notice several houses that remain unfinished as well.

    Some real estate agencies and construction companies also offer ‘house and packages,’ from as low as $175,000 for a 3 bedroom, one bathroom wood house.
    There is a new development in Lower Estate, where the price of house and land started at $385,000.
    Only 11 of 56 lots remain available for sale.


  19. Boys and girls
    Bread a butter.
    https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/09/25/police-destroy-400-kilograms-of-illegal-drugs/

    That was all there is to the article. Don’t even click on it.
    A good reporter
    How many kilograms were seized in 2022
    when was it seized
    where was it seized
    How many kilograms were destroyed
    Why some of the seized product was not destroyed.
    ( mention of some of the drug players would enhance the report)

    That thing running down your leg. It is not rain. It is pee.


  20. Thanks Commander Hants.
    When it comes to knowing what is happening in the island… You are unequalled.


  21. Don’t play the games. Don’t watch a house in shambles and argue about a missing glass pane in one of the windows.

    Ignore the hifalutin talk. Don’t lie to yourself? Stop shaking and crying yourself to sleep. I implore you. I beseech you. Put aside the old talk and act .. act like a man.
    https://youtu.be/7nqcgUDoV_M


  22. @Pacha

    Yet you are unable to inform of a path that circumvents existing establishment pathways?


  23. @Artax

    People can chose within the constraints of national priorities and resources. It is no different to why there are laws on the books to protect public morals. We can’t have a free for all, finite resources must be planned for the optimal benefit of ALL.

  24. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    “Put aside the old talk and act .. act like a man.”

    real men seem to be in short supply, few and far between these days, they were successfully reduced to talkers…… noticed it’s now the women and a few good men taking the lead to ACT…..not talk.


  25. David

    We never pretended to have all the answers.

    We can’t even get you to try to really understand the fundamental problems.

    But have suggested more than one previously. How many have you offered? Is this writer being paid to solve problems created by your friends, culture?

    Nature abhors a vacuum. The vacuousness of your governance construct in and of itself presents a range of solutions.

    But like the slave who’s ‘become adjusted to injustice’ you will never run away or think in real revolutionary terms.

    The easy answers are no more!


  26. @Pacha

    Unlike you and others the blogmaster is unwilling to burn the bridge crossing the economic chasm until viable alternatives emerge, if they do.

  27. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    someone ought to tell and SHOW the talkmeisters that we are WAY BEYOND TALKING….and every year repeatedly showcasing these minor fixable problems that negatively impact the people…that NEVER get fixed.

    especially since their lead dummies have IGNORED them all prior to and AFTER 2018 and talking about some world “agenda” they have….can’t fix the bus service, corruption, NIS, GIS, nothing but got a new world economic plan for our earth….

    the IGNORANCE has now consolidated in broad daylight……keep ears to the ground and stand clear of the blowback.


  28. “People can chose within the constraints of national priorities and resources. It is no different to why there are laws on the books to protect public morals.”

    @ David

    I don’t understand your comment.

    What do you mean by choosing “within the constraints of national priorities and resources?”

    There aren’t any laws to prevent consumers from choosing what they want to purchase.

    Unless, ‘government’ decides to enact legislation, for example, to limit the purchase of one vehicle per household…… or limit the the amount of vehicles imported to a specific number per car dealerships……
    …… then, I don’t see the correlation between choosing what to purchase and laws protecting public morals.


  29. @Artax

    You answered the question yourself. Governments make policies based on current state of play. Given the perilous state of the economy do you presume it will/should be business as usual?


  30. David
    Did you not give up all kinds of organizing principles before you happened upon this one.

    Those would obviously include feudalism and slavery of course.

    Maybe, if one has cancer of the lung it too should be kept until a donor is found. Such is your logic, as it is!


  31. @Pacha

    Your extreme example is not fit for purpose but average attempt to persuade otherwise.


  32. @ David.

    There are too many fast moving parts now to predict any outcome over the next few months.

    For example with the sterling where it is the travel agents are pressuring our hotels for discounts to make us attractive. They are claiming we are already expensive and with the £ where it is we are a hard sell. So what’s the next move for us? Do we drop room rates and place occupancy over revenue? The post covid economy is a totally different animal to the pre covid one.


  33. @John A

    Agree, there is no baseline year to jump from in this post covid period.


  34. @ David

    Thing is these are bookings that were made a few months back by now the time has come for the agents to pay they are saying “we can’t buy at those prices now with £ where it is.”

    The weak sterling will affect property sales this season too so we will have to just sit it out and see what happens.


  35. @John A

    Our economy is tourism and IB dependent. It is what it is, we have to make the best of it in the short term. The discussion must me the 3 to 5 year plan to offload some of the concentration.


  36. Barbados 🇧🇧 must implement stronger traffic laws.

    It is very important that whenever you drive a vehicle it has registration and is insured.

    Under Vehicle and Traffic Law in most countries, every car on the road must be registered and requires registration renewal once every two years. Your car must pass an annual safety inspection in order for your registration to be renewed.
    However, it is important to understand that you don’t need to be driving your vehicle – or even behind the wheel – to get in trouble for having an expired registration tag. Even if your car is parked on the street a police officer can check the license plate and run it to see if your car has up-to-date registration.

    Simply by running your license plate police officers have access to pull up any citations, criminal history and information on the owner of the vehicle, including their address.

    BDS Automotive Safety issues needs immediate attention:

    Uninsured/Unregistered hired car rental, expired registration and approximately 30 percent of the driving vehicles on the roads are Not Insured.
    Ask your neighbor if his or her car is insured ?

    You probably will be shocked at the response..

    Registration & Insurance must be closely connected.

    Impound violators 🚙.

    Pay large sums of $ to retrieve your Jalopy. A definite deterrent from violating the MV Law.

    Minister, Get to stepping!!!!


  37. Usd = 1.09£ today!


  38. David

    How so? Don’t we have a cancerous tumor at the center of the body politic? Or should we wait until there are more cancer cells than heathy ones?


  39. Sorry about that I meant. £ Equals USD 1.09 today. God forbid it was the other way around. LOL


  40. @Pacha

    At which stage is the cancer? Sometimes you have to allow a natural progression to occur based on the ‘stage’ in the absence of workable prescription.

  41. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    Just getting info on the latest SELLOUT move…..the ignorance of signing up to sustainable debt slavery now sees Africans/other people in the Americas own nothing….

    .started in Belize by a Nature Conservancy Organization, am sure Pacha has indepth info on that…

    ……debt conversion for marine conservation…gives them ultimate control over debt transfer of rights of use, TOTAL CONTROL over what sellouts can do with their populations…..when asked to jump these TRAITORS can pnly ask how high………the owners of 60% of YOUR RESOURCES OWN YOU, they start low at 20% and climb rapidly……ask the world stage runner what she did…regarding the water now and lands to follow……and NEVER ONCE CONSULTED THE PEOPLE…who pay her salary….

    because the NEWS GETS EVEN WORSE FROM THERE…..everyone needs to do their research…see the TRAP SET THROUGH GREED and try to SIDE STEP IT…individually…..ya lead dummy RAN YALL INTO A BIG HOLE from which ya will NEVER ESCAPE…….

    so don’t get distracted by the usual….oh the buyers of cars are responsible for government refusing to do their jobs and fix the damn useless bus service…,,a distraction…

  42. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    i repeat….Diego Garcia is NOT the name of a person…


  43. David

    Which planet have you been on? Within the political theatre alone everywhere there are idiots, incompetents or Alzheimer’s patients in charge.

    Is this a progression tolerable for much more with nuclear war beckoning on three (3) fronts, fascists coming to power, Europe entering a mini ice age and Biden so demented that he has no clue where he is at any point in time.

    And in the case of Biden no one is suggesting a removal from office like in the case of Trump. Who is in charge in Washington? It certainly cannot be the man said to have elected, can it? Or is this simply a figure head who is so weak that the oligarchs are running things behind the scenes. Is this your democracy?

    And we can go on and on and on. Liz Truss is another congenial asshole. What more would you want to see?

    Are these the ‘natural processes’ you evince?


  44. Barbados Prime Minister & Supreme Leader for Life Mottley calls for overhaul of unfair, outdated global finance system.

    She has the antidote for those cancerous imbedded cells in our economy.

    You just don’t want to admit it..


  45. @Pacha

    If by your explanation ‘idiots’ are the market makers what are ‘takers’ to do?


  46. Waru

    It’s an America military base in Indian Ocean or thereabouts.

  47. African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved Avatar
    African Online Publishing Copyright ⓒ 2022. All Rights Reserved

    It sure is…


  48. David

    It is the your very ‘market makers’ who are putting these people in power, everywhere, Barbados too!

    Or would you now proffer that this is all happened by some natural progression, or maybe osmosis. We see this as a total and irretrievable systemic failure.


  49. The people, the law and their constitution
    By Dr William M. A. Chandler

    In February 2011, attorney at law and constitutional scholar, Ezra Alleyne, wrote in the Nation’s column For The Public Record that, “. . . in a young democracy, it is dangerously unwise to remove the ancient landmarks”.
    “Indeed, these foundation planks must be kept in good repair so that if and when the occasion arises the house may shake but never fall, for the man or woman at the centre must then hold things together, lest they fall apart!”
    In this regard, Mr Alleyne was discussing the Office of Prime Minister during the dreaded Stuart years, where Barbados’ political economy was tested beyond belief. We are now living in the Mottley years, where there is much repair to be done and healing to be achieved. It is fitting, therefore, that we now turn our attention to discussing the most ancient of landmarks: the people, the law and their constitution.
    Barbados, now a republic, is going through a time of great change which is, already and inevitably, centring on the Constitution and its role as the guiding post of our democracy. I suspect that almost everyone in our society has an opinion on what “should” and “should not” be in it. Some even, to our shared chagrin, will want everything and the kitchen sink in it. Those people, of course, need to be led to the “better-land” of thinking, where constitutions are kept short and sweet, flexible with a backbone and always subject to the public’s will.
    Looking at human history, constitutions, as we know them, have been around for some time but, in the totality of that history, they are relatively new inventions. What is actually much more ancient than
    modern is the law itself.
    The law orders our lives and separates us from our barbarism. The curious thing is, however, that even where a country is governed by law, it may still be enveloped within barbarism. This occurs when the weak have no say in public life; and “law” – so-called – is but a mere reflection of the strong’s will alone. This we call “rule-by-law” as opposed to “rule-of-law”.
    Similarly, constitutions, as powerful as they can be, do not guarantee civilization’s triumph over barbarism. It does not take much for countries to have “peace” under iron rule or have that rule break into wars causing countless deaths. Such countries are no better than the wilds.
    ‘Public interest’ Consensus, made without coercion of course, and nothing else, is what separates human civilisation from human barbarism. This consensus we call the public’s will. It is the same as the mythical “public interest” which democratic constitutions are supposed to express and their guardian courts pledge to defend. In large measure, I think that is why Mr Alleyne quoted Sir James Tudor’s statement in another Nation column A Word In Season in 1994 that “we cannot hope for a decent constitutional system if we are not prepared to strengthen its foundations”.
    Similarly, Caribbean philosopher Aimé Césaire in his Discourse On Colonialism, translated from French to English, tells us that “A civilization that proves incapable of solving the problems it creates is a decadent civilization. A civilization that chooses to close its eyes to its most crucial problems is a stricken civilization. A civilization that uses its principles for trickery and deceit is a dying civilization.”
    Order
    If you haven’t noticed by now, the foundation of a constitutional order is not the constitution itself: it is the people from whom the authority undergirding the law and its constitution is derived. More importantly, a country’s constitutional order is only as good as each person’s mindset and the quality of public discourse in which they engage. You can see, therefore, why certain great powers today will be nothing more than little pigeons sitting on a stool waiting for crumbs tomorrow.
    It is also why we, the people of Barbados, as a potentially world-leading force, should take time to carefully consider how we treat with each other and the way(s) in which we build our sovereign wealth.
    Summarily, it must be underscored that, as beautiful as constitutions appear, they are “rough and tumble” documents ordering our social and economic lives. In that regard, therefore, now that the Government of Barbados is seeking to engage citizens in conversations on constitutional reform, it would be wise for every interested citizen to take hold of the opportunity. This includes those under the age of majority, for they, too, will inherit the Earth upon which we now trod.

    Dr William M. A. Chandler is a published political economist, legal scholar and business consultant. Email wma@auxomni.com.


    Source: Nation

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