
What does Senior Minister William Duguid mean when he declared this week that Barbados “has experienced significant and disconnected suburban growth…combined with the doubling number of cars, has resulted in peak hour gridlock and increasing levels of congestion almost everywhere on the island”. He went on to PROMISE that the government “expect to develop a national transportation mobility plan that will guide future investment. We will propose transportation strategies at the island scale”.
What the hell!
What immediately came to mind after reading was – cart before the horse and the chant Mini Bus Hustle by Winston Farrell.
Isn’t one of government’s priorities to plan development in the country it is charged to govern in order to avoid the chaos Duguid highlighted in his address to the Barbados Town Planning Society’s (BTPS)? If there is one example the value of orderly planning of a country’s development it must be Singapore? The fact Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office Dr. William Duguid with responsibility for infrastructural projects was unembarrassed in his public observation should make all sensible Barbadians pause.
For almost 50 years successive governments have refused to effectively regulate the private transportation sector. As a result the sector now strives in a sub culture that threatens to supplant mainstream. Full in the knowledge how we have crafted the current state, Duguid would have us believe his government has the wherewithal to execute a national transportation plan? This must be what it feels like to be apathetic, cynical with a deep distrust of government.
Barbados has earned the unenviable reputation as being afflicted with implementation deficit. Senior Minister William Duguid will have to buck the historical trend to win over this cynical blogmaster.
Police are currently on the scene of a shooting incident at Eagle Hall, St Michael.
https://barbadostoday.bb/2022/11/10/shooting-incident-at-eagle-hall/
@Hants
BU posted a blog a couple weeks ago to say authorities clueless about how to arrest the problem. Like the minibus culture the problems and solutions are interconnected and intertwined.
When did the law change to allow scooters on the roads of Barbados?
@ David,
The shootings and murders are black on black local crimes.
As long as Tourists don’t get shot there will be no serious ACTION to solve the problem of guns and gangs.
Nuff long talk but no action.
@Hants
The is a fallacy pushed by politicians.
@Hants
You have been in the BU space for a long time now, how often has the Blogmaster wrote about matters of cultural relativism and weeds protruding on our lawns? We are here now.
https://fb.watch/gJb_NS-ewk/
Worse words I ever heard out of a politicians mouth
“Everybody should have a little car at the door” Owen Arthur. And I liked Owen.
Then and now I wondered if he was channeling the car dealerships.
Then and now I thought if everybody has a car, then at their door is exactly where it will have to stay in order to avoid gridlock on our roads.
A Prime Minister’s job is not to act as salesman for car dealerships. A Prime Minister’s job is to work with his Cabinet, MP’s and civil servants to create and implement sensible public policy. It never has been and never will be good public policy for every Bajan family to have a car.
So here we are in 2022 in gridlock hell.
I haven’t bought a car since 1987. I haven’t owned a car since 1999. I will never ever buy a car again.
Cuhdear Bajan
Car Free and Happy
Good for you.
The people that have to wait hours for a bus to get home after a long hard day at work ain’t paying you no mind though.
Yuh tink um duz be easy leffing work at 4:30 and not getting home until minutes to nine or later? Then got to get up early next morning to catch the first bus?
All now I here got my eyes pon uh sports swift that I see fuh sale. Gridlock vs bus terminal is a no brainer for me.
The value system for the majority of Barbadians is about acquiring a vehicle to be perceived as ‘having arrived’, it isn’t only about access to efficient transport.
Source: Nation
The minibus culture is easily solved. But wunna too soft to solve it.
After collecting a few off for some hard labour for some months, the problem will solve itself.
Source: Nation
A lil gem from Duguid again
“Senior Minister in the Prime Minister’s office, Dr William Duguid says that the Government is wary of tackling more than they can handle and will approach the problem in sizable amounts so that it is done properly.
“We will go at it in little chunks as we lost the money from the Inter-American Development Bank. So we intend to do these projects out of savings and the normal transition of central Government funds so that bit by bit we still achieve that improvement to Greenfield,” he explained (Nation)
What money is he referring to?
I see multiple recent Resolutions for the compulsory acquisition of lands for a multitude of ‘public purposes’. Yet, the members of both houses are expected to vote on these, and nowhere does it mention the PRICE. Just the current owner, the size and a physical description.
And we wonder why we cannot balance revenues with expenses?