WB speed limit cut delayed again
West Bay Road
(CNS): The reduction in the speed limit on the West Bay Road is being delayed ministry officials have confirmed as a result of other pending changes to the traffic law. Plans to cut the speed limit from 40mph to 30mph, not least because of the numerous accidents on the road which runs parallel to Seven Mile Beach, have been on the cards for several years but the actual implementation seems elusive.
The planning ministry, which has responsibility for roads and the traffic law, has given numerous tentative dates, all of which have come and gone.
Officials told CNS this week that the change was still happening but with further amendments to the traffic law expected, the speed limit change would happen at the same time. “This is in the final stages, and we anticipate putting it up for Cabinet’s consideration within the month. It is more prudent to have one comprehensive change instead of piecemeal changes,” said Acting Chief Officer Tristan Hydes.
Government had last indicated that the implementation would happen in September 2015 after the May date had been missed last year before that. Now it seems as though it will be later this year before the first of the speed limit changes will be implemented.
In 2014 the National Roads Authority, in partnership with International Road Assessment Programme (iRAP), conducted an assessment of the safety level of local roads as well as a public consultation on local speed limits and possible changes across the islands but there have been few revelations from government about those findings and what it plans to do to address some of the obvious safety issues on local roads.
The preliminary report found that while Cayman roads were safer than many in the region, there were still many hazards that could be addressed to make the roads more forgiving. Trees or buildings being too close to main roads, poor markings, incorrect speed limits and pedestrian safety were all highlighted as problems that needed to be addressed.
Category: Laws, Local News, Politics
Look, until the traffic laws are enforced this whole speed lowering thing is useless. Everyday I am on the road there are at least 4 idiots overtaking, speeding, parking IN THE MIDDLE OF THE ROAD, and generally making the road unsafe for other motorists/pedestrians/bikers. Cops need to patrol, but we have been saying this for so long I fear it will never happen. It’s so bad I’m at the point where I am done calling the cops on drink drivers as they never catch the car I call about or even give a s**t.
Pass ganja use laws and none of us will care what the speed limit is. Everything will naturally get slower
I trust the “further amendments to the Traffic Law” include penalties for obscured, missing, or invisible number plates, as well as white indicator lights, blue headlights, straight-through exhausts, missing covers on Marl Trucks, bald tyres and those who overtake on yellow-hatched safety zones and finally, and especially, those who navigate entire roundabouts on the outside, chopping everyone off.
Think of this; Seven Mile Beach road (the most congeted traffic artery with both vehecles and tourists) is the same speed limit as the by-pass roads (almost no congestion).
Makes no sense at all!
Hopefully the new Traffic Law will contain some provisions about the safety of children. In First World countries there are severe penalties for not having children in age appropriate car seats. Every time a child is in a moving vehicle without being properly buckled in their lives are in danger. The children do not understand the danger and are relying on the adults to make sure they are safe. Adults that do not do this should be punished severely. Do we have to wait for a child to be killed in a low speed fender bender before taking action on this?
It would also be helpful to have some to control the idiots on motorcycles who think they are too important to follow basic traffic rules.
Of course it doesn’t make any difference what the law says if there is no enforcement of them. I fail to understand why the police, who are always complaining about budget cuts, do not see that they could bring in millions of dollars in revenue per year by enforcing basic traffic laws. This would give them much needed funding and hopefully make the roads here far safer for everyone that uses them.
I would suggest putting up some more lighting, but if you can’t erect a few signes to lower the speed limit….forget about adding some lighting.
So,? What’s the rush? The last time I was able to hit even close to 30 MPH on W.B. Road was around 3 am on a Sunday!!
It doesn’t matter what speed limit you write into law and post on signs if nobody is around to enforce it.
This morning I was overtaken by some idiot on Hirst Road just to end up right in front of me with nowhere to go as traffic is pretty much bumper to bumper during morning rush hour. Same thing on South Sound Road where another two idiots decided they were more important than everyone else and needed their little kick for the day by jumping ahead by one or two cars!
And I was driving 40 mph so I already had broken the law and exceeded the speed limit.
Sadly, the much delayed Traffic Law and speed limit signs will do nothing to improve nighttime pedestrian illumination, or tourist lefthand education; nor will they herald the sudden appearance of a functional traffic enforcement department.
but it will generally reduce speeds along caymans most busy tourist road….
hahaha, not mine!
The effect of reducing speed on fatalities is much higher than people think. A pedestrian hit at 20mph has a 95% survival chance. At 30mph at 55% survival chance. At 40mph at 15% survival chance. Think about that when you consider the appropriate speed limit in built up areas. Oh and these figures don’t include people hit by cars with bull bars. Owners of such cars are vain, selfish and deserve to burn in hell for eternity.
There are no segments of the population putting bull bars on their cars so that they can run over people. The running over seems to be done by Shelby Mustangs, Taxis, and pickup trucks.
Rather than attempt to debate the relative lethality of traffic speeds, why don’t we address the actual causes of these impacts: impaired drivers, poorly lit streets and pedestrian zones, pedestrian tourist education and signage? 10/10 pedestrians would agree, “better to avoid the impact altogether”.
well said…kurt should be made read this publicly
just read the history of this process by cig over the last few years…..caymanian incompetence at its finest…..no wonder the national symbol is a turtle!
A turtle with his leg eaten off!!
Its actually a Lion’s backside.
I totally agree! Think the speed should be a snails pace all along the hotel stretch. And really wish we enough police to lock up those idiots using the middle lane as a passing lane!
I agree with you there.Biggest problem is the money hungry taxi drivers and public buses(now not all are that way)but many r and have no interest in slowing down for anything but the almighty dollar.Some of them even do U turns without signaling.How great is that and again for the couple of fares along the road.Dont even mention the stopping half way out in the left hand lane to p/up or drop off their passengers.Now this is just normal BUT on heavy cruise ship days its like a Grande Prix out there.I remember years back Barefoot mentioned the jumping back of the lite poles due to the racing on some of our roads.
The answer for all this??I don’t quite know as there are not enough police
to enforce things now much less when the law finally gets changed.Someone asked why does the LA have to bring a motion to the house for such petty stuff.A single swipe of a pen should be able to deal with it.Stop wasting time and get on with it.
I don’t know what everyone is screaming about. NOBODY drives 40 on West Bay Road. Especially during the day. Where are all these road deaths that are happening on WB Rd.?? They are happening other places like South Church Street and out in the Eastern Districts…
On Jan. 25, two American tourists, a husband and wife, were injured while on the sidewalk outside of Villas of the Galleon on West Bay Road by a driver who left the scene of the accident. The husband sustained serious facial injuries and was airlifted to the United States for medical treatment.
The following day, Jan. 26, a 14-year-old resident was seriously injured by a hit-and-run driver while on a pedestrian crossing at the Savannah Primary School. His 21-year-old brother was also hit in that incident but sustained only minor injuries.
A 16-year-old American tourist was critically injured after being hit by a mini-van while crossing the road outside the Grand Cayman Marriott Beach Resort on April 6.
Girl burned 80% of body dies. Man burned 20%. The car, a black Audi, was traveling north on West Bay Road when it hit the curb at the bend in the road in the Public Beach area and flipped over.
On 29 December, at around 7pm a pick-up truck hit a man who was crossing the road by Pepper’s Bar and Restaurant on the West Bay Road in the heart of Cayman’s tourist district. The RCIPS has now confirmed that the 68-year-old man was a visitor to the islands from the UK.
Speed was not necessarily the causality of these regrettable impacts, since there was no attempt to brake in many of these. We know that one of alcohol, drugs, pedestrian disorientation, poor illumination and distracted drivers reduced reaction time to zero. It shouldn’t be fashionable to let people drive around drunk.
Again, these were not caused by anyone driving 40MPH!!!! Many tourists are hit because of looking the wrong way as they step into the road. I see it daily.
Thats what happens when people walk in the rd, what we should be more concerned about is what would happen if drivers started driving in the bushes.
Good Call Govt. Leave it as it is.
(Support the call for better enforcement of the current speed limit, as well as ‘dangerous turning lane misuse’. That’s all that is needed.)
Right – why would anyone want to lower it to 30 and save lives…
West Bay Road needs to be changed NOW!! IF there is a death between now and when it is convenient for the politicians to make the move. It will be their fault. and on their shoulders. I am tired of them saying over and over it will happen.. In this case “soon come” is not good enough.
Probably busy trying to figure out how to handle remediate the dump! They can only do so much….
“To do” list got shorter now that they are not going ahead with Daylight savings time change. Maybe they can figure out how to squeeze this into their busy agenda?
Changing the speed limit is really not going to save tourists. They drive in rental cars and drive on the wrong side until they have enough practice, then they get it. People who come from the states will still make the mistake.
The next suggestion after they prove my statement, will be to say to drive on the right. The best way to solve the problem is restrict people driving in rental cars now from right side driving before the big accident. Road rage is getting worse by the day. Keep your eye on that next.
The problem is that tourist pedestrians are getting hit by local drivers. Multiple severe injuries in 2015. It is not a tourist driving problem.
You go east end and the limit hits 50. Some parts of unpopulated area of east is 25 mph, down walkers road for example is 30 then 25. West bay road is full of tourists and people with no idea of which way to look for traffic really and its 40? Nothing makes sense to me with all the limits, maybe it should be 30 across the board except the 50 stretch on the way to east, too simple????
Come on be fair people, they do have to change 2 speed limit signs along that road and thats
no easy process, you know how many people it will take and how long to do it, over 2 hours and at least 2 people!
2 hours guv? Seriously, that’s a 3 day job if ever I saw one and maybe even a week.
And some brain surgeon leaning on his humvee, watching
Amazing. Something simple to save lives that could be achieved in a week is filed under “soon come”. PPM at its best.
Kurt is way past sell-by date.
I think that the Government should treat the 7 mile beach road as a densely populated residential erea where you would see the speed limit is 25mph . I don’t understand why the Government has to take years to change the speed limit , but you wait till a smart lawyer see that if the speed was lower it could have avoided the death.
Why on earth is a speed limit change something that requires a new law to be passed?
For such a densely populated area, the speed limit should be reduced to 25mph, as it is for most residential areas on the island. And then, as Richard Tracy says, the limit needs to be enforced!
Richard Tracy didn’t say the limit needed to be reduced to 25mph – that would be ludicrous; people would just get irritated and overtake (as they already do), and probably put their foot down on the accelerator in frustration. THEN an accident will happen….. Keep the limit at 40 – and enforce it.
Ummm, there is the bypass, soon to be 2-lanes in each direction, for those that need to go faster. We need to do better for the tourists. And RIchard Tracy didn’t say the limit needs to be 25mph, he said the limits need to be enforced…
cig incompetence at its best……kurt and co. have blood on their hands…..
The speed limit isn’t the problem. The problem is that the speed limit isn’t being enforced!
The speed itself is an issue too. Look at the death rates for pedestrians at 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 mph. At 40 mph no-one survives. That is because when we evolved we had no need to survive impacts higher than being run into by a largish animal or falling from a tree. So a cut to 30 mph should assist reducing fatalities, although 25 mph would be better. But I agree with you that enforcement is a must. A simple recognition camera with a speed trap or two would sort things out.
nonsense comment…..40mph speed limit on the busiest tourist area fo the island is idiotic beyond belief….