Traffic lights at Westmoreland causing congestion, say residents

Residents of northern Barbados have expressed concern about the recently installed traffic signals on Highway 2A at the Royal Westmoreland intersection, which they say have caused traffic problems daily.

In response to concerns raised by resident Carlos Bignall at the St Lucy Parish Speaks town hall meeting on Thursday, Technical Officer in the Ministry of Transport and Works Jason Bowen said the ministry was aware of the situation but having lights in the area was unavoidable.

“We are aware of the issue relative to the congestion that is being caused at the location, but we always must look back at the history of the junction, where there were numerous fatal accidents at that junction. The traffic signals were mainly placed there to mitigate the fatalities that were occurring at that junction. We will continue to look at the timing and the phasing [of the lights],” he said.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley said there was a wider issue to be addressed – traffic difficulties in general – given the staggering rise in vehicles on the road over the last few decades.

She said that though review of the timing of the lights in the area needed to be done, the traffic in the area was just a small part of the bigger traffic issue facing the island on a daily basis.

“We are going to have to have a serious conversation as a nation about the issue of traffic, because it is no sense having a car, if when you have the car you can’t get to where you want to go on a small island. Therefore, there will be multiple solutions, and there will probably have to be a major set of engagements throughout this year, that the

Deputy Prime Minister [Santia Bradshaw] will lead, to begin to get to the bottom of how best we can do it.”
She said the spike in the number of vehicles on the road over the last few decades has undoubtedly contributed to traffic congestion, necessitating some type of traffic augmentation at some time.

“When I came into public life 30 years ago, we were told at the time that there were about 80 000 cars. I know your minister [Bradshaw] is trying to have a major change and starting to look at the traffic issues and the road issues, and a combination of how we build more car parks to facilitate more public transport and augment public transport,” the prime minister said. (SB)