Date set for speed limit changes
West Bay Road, Grand Cayman
(CNS): In just five days government will introduce a slew of speed limit changes across Grand Cayman. Following a review that began almost three years ago and over a year of missed dates for a change in the speed limit on the West Bay Road, the new speeds finally come into effect Monday. The speed limit will drop on the West Bay Road from Central George Town to the Public Beach from 40mph to 25mph, but not all of the changes will slow traffic down.
A number of changes have been made that push the speed limit up, such as North Sound Road and Thomas Russell Way from Bobby Thompson to Butterfield Roundabout, where the speed limit will increase from 25mph to 35mph, as well as along the Esterley Tibbetts Highway connection to Willie Farrington Drive, where it will also increase to 35mph.
Changes are happening all over the island, including a stretch of Austin Connolly Drive near the popular tourist area near the Morritt’s, where the speed limit is being reduced to 35 from 50mph.
The proposed changes follow reviews by the National Roads Authority (NRA) and the Traffic Management Panel and public consultations in 2013. Officials said that public input during the consultation period was also considered.
The key change had been the anticipated fall in speed along the busy stretch of the West Bay Road as a result of the number and seriousness of accidents, including a teenage tourist who sustained serious head injuries when he was hit by a public bus in front of the Marriott hotel last spring.
Category: Local News
Great news, but two days after the announcement I still cannot locate the maps on the NRA website. Surely that must have been the responsibility of a specific person. If so, that person should be relieved of their duties.
According to the change information the section of Crewe Road between Silver Oaks roundabout to DMS roundbout is to be raised to 30mph!!! REALLY?
I drove on this today (Saturday) and it is 40 mph. So which section is being changed.
9 out of 10 people aren’t killed due to the speed limit on WB road. They are killed because they get drunk, think they are in Disney World and wonder into traffic just like the damn cruise shippers in town.
Idiot. Look at the fact rather than post from selfish ignorance. At 25mph a pedestrian has a 75% chance of surviving being hit. At 35mph they only have a 25% chance of surviving. Above 40mph it practically drops to zero. So speed is probably the most important factor that can be addressed to save lives. But nice to see you would rather speed than protect the lives of tourists.
I have never lived anywhere with so many laws, rules etc and so little enforcement. I am not sure what the purpose of your police force is. Is it just to be there after the event, or do you think they may be able to combine enforcement?
May I suggest to invest in some automated speed traps strategically placed throughout the Island which takes photos of the driver and photo of the license plate? May I also suggest that Security Center would not be involved with any such installment and monitoring of those speed traps?
We are in fact in the year 2016 so perhaps time to catch up on some of the available technology?
Changing the speed limits ain’t gonna do s**t in most areas.
Oh and FYI Cops, sitting at the same spot every morning on the Linford bypass ain’t gonna do s**t either. 2 crappy silver Hondas with blacked out windows and plates went flying up the wrong side of the road into oncoming traffic this morning.
How about changing your location from time to time and you might catch the p****ks.
I won’t hold my breath.
Suggestions from a frequent tourist: 1. How about some paint on your sidewalks at the main crossing points that say “look right or look left” to remind tourists for crossing. 2. Bigger signs at roundabouts which may stop people from crossing lanes last minute and/or a sign before entering the roundabout which shows the exit points before entering it – gives you a heads up before you get into it 3. More lighting on WB road in certain spots as that road is very dark in spots 4. A shuttle bus going up & down WB road that stops occasionally so tourists (and locals) would not even need to rent a car to go up the “strip”. Just my 2 cents.
Also the crossings have to be lit so motorists can see people on the sidewalks waiting to cross at nights.
Sorry, we don’t take constructive criticism or feedback unless it comes from a randomly thrown-together committee (and we then ignore the report) or some external consultants who have been paid a huge amount of cash.
Frankly, your feedback is way too common sense!
Some good points. However,
(1) whenever you are crossing any road ANYWHERE you should look BOTH ways, just like your parents told you to do.
(4) there are busses, granted they could be operated more professionally, but it is only a $1 to travel most of SMB.
Yes, parents probably taught ‘tourists’ to look both ways, but they are looking the opposite way first. A simple reminder on which way to look first and not last would only cost a spray can and may save lives. Re. the buses, I may be incorrect, but I do not think that they run late at night (dinner hour/club hours) and a trolley that does would certainly be helpful.
Great news, but two days after the announcement I still cannot locate the maps on the NRA website. Surely that must have been the responsibility of a specific person. If so, that person should be relieved of their duties.
Also who knew that currently the speed limit on the 4-lane section of Crewe Road in front of the Lion Centre was 25mph????? According to the change information that section (Silver Oaks roundabout to DMS roundbout) is to be raised to 30mph!!! Really! REALLY?
Be quiet. You understand neither the culture or the heritage. Be off if you do not like it, there are many planes leaving daily.
So whenever there’s a serious accident and – God forbid – an injury or death – the speed limit will drop. We will get to a point where the law abiding majority will be forced to drive at 5mph, but the careless & reckless will speed with impunity, because police only turn up when there’s an accident. Laws and limits need to be enforced with a police presence.
If I drive past Ocean Club during the day at the usual 50 mph, I’ll have fully laden marl trucks overtaking me at 65mph and other cars and SUVs flashing by at 70mph, so what’s the point of speed limits anyway? In practical terms, they’re as meaningless as the threatened $500 fine for litter or the $10,000 fine for shooting Parrots, our National Birds.
Does everyone promise that if I continue to drive the speed limit, you will no longer gently massage by cars buttocks as I drive up West Bay Road or the Esterley Tibbetts Highway as seems to be the common practice for the majority of drivers in Cayman?
Let see and wait for idiots bus and taxi drivers….oh yes souped Honda cars to obey new speed limit on west bay road.
Yeah and Fosters Airport Handicap spot could probably solve the US debt cause every Tom, Dick, Harry, Bill, Bob and Fred parks there.
Apparently if you are an obese angry middle aged woman in an SUV you are allowed to park in disabled spaces whenever you want to eat if the space is next to a food store.
Just three years? Wow, the pace is picking up around here….any truth in the rumour that we will be changing the side of the road we drive on and on the changeover will take place gradually over a 7 day period with us being able to choose which side we drive on in those seven days?
9.52….A lot of the regular cyclists are already driving on the wrong side of the road with no challenge or penalty so there’s no reason all we traffic can’t follow suit…no need to wait 7 years
Will the new signs say “mph” as many drivers seem to think they are “kph” so are already driving at about 25 mph instead of 40 mph along the West Bay road. In fairness its because many of our imported cars (particularly left hand drive) have their speedometers only in kph…
Not on subject, but related: Due to the accidents we have pedestrian crossings now on the West Bay Road. Could the police PLEASE spend some time in the area and ticket the drivers who ignore the flashing lights and speed through whilst pedestrians are trying to get across the road. If they don’t think they can get enough of those drivers to warrant their time, they could also ticket the buses and taxis who use the middle lane to overtake traffic as seemingly they ‘have a right’ to get to their destination quicker than the rest of us.
And the ones who rip people off, heard that one business visitor got charged $300 for being taken from the Westin to Calypso Grill….that kind of treatment just has to stop. Apparently the drivers boycott companies who complain. That monopoly needs to be broken.
Island is ripe for Uber.
The mediocre mafia would shut that down in seconds citing trade and business licensing and other means of protecting one of the world’s worst, most expensive and most dangerous taxi systems.
On the contrary the left hand drive cars which come from the US use MPH. The Japanese right hand imports use KPH
Someone please confirm but being an Amber flashing light and not a Red steady one I dont think it is illegal to drive through, only recommended to stop and give way. Now at a Pedestrian Crossing with the Black & White markings you have to stop, ok I know people dont on this island but that is breaking the law.
Please help spread the word to employees and new residents that Japanese Import speedo dials are calibrated in Metric Km/h units, not Imperial Mph units. It’s hard to imagine, but there are far too many driving around that didn’t seem to get that far in their schooling: 25mph = 40.23 km/h, 35mph = 56.32 km/h, 40mph = 64.37km/h, 50mph = 80.46km/h.
Without this (regrettably) necessary public lesson we are going to have slowpokes (perhaps one of the many without license or insurance) driving 25km/h, which is 15.53mph in Imperial terms – that is a scenario that will lead to more daredevil overtaking, and greater danger on West Bay Road, not less. Lets drive carefully, sober, fully engaged on task of driving, and keep things flowing please.
The Japanese import vehicles speedometer dial states it is in k.m.h just as the odometer also in conjunction reads kilometres , the same as U.S. vehicles also show the ‘m.p.h’ on the speedometer dial , Korean import vehicles also show m.p.h & read in miles distance. The Japanese also have been labelling their vehicle’s instruments this way since the 1970’s. But thank you for stating the blatently obvious.Without you , none of us that have been driving for 45 years would have picked up on this small nugget of automotive nomenclature.
What perhaps you do not appreciate is that the speed limit signs, as you must know, only state a number and not mph. So to visitors driving cars with kmph speedometers it is not made clear from the road signs that they should be driving in mph, and you can hardly blame them for thinking the signs must mean kmph. This is very often obvious on South Sound when a line of vehicles is stuck behind a hire car driving at 25 kmph.
Unfortunately, too few understand or respect our existing signs, roadway rules, and right-of-ways. They are merely suggestions in a world bereft of enforcement. Some of the speed limits that never made sense are changing; others like reducing to 25mph from Gov to Public Beach seem to be a bit of a nonsensical over-reaction which encourages dangerous overtaking. NRA have the actual road data but those don’t seem to factor in the long-belated politically-tinged decision making of the sort most of us are sick of. The cure is for the police to get out there, and for the NRA to use the data they collect (at our expense) to find the best balance between improving road safety and traffic flow.
Nonsensical is the word. 25mph is TOO slow for a main road. We already have people driving at that speed and the result is a tailback of drivers getting frustrated by the driver holding everyone up.
Anyway….so now – there will be no more accidents on the WB Road. The accidents are caused by people going too fast for the conditions. I predict this will continue.
Look at the survival rates from being hit at 25mph and 35mph. At 25mph a pedestrian has a 75% chance of surviving. At 35mph they only have about a 25% of living. Given the length of the road in question, the speed difference will make about less than a 2 minute difference to your journey. How selfish you are.
Are there any possibilities to have speed limits posted in both KPH and MPH?
No. Never.
Now how about addressing the driving standards in Cayman? How about teaching everyone how to use roundabouts, how to not stray into other lanes, not use mobiles when driving, learn the rules of the road before being given a license to kill?
Hear, hear 8.51…A good start would be for drivers to look at their vehicle manual and find out how to use the ‘stick thing’ that turns their indicator signal on…a good percentage seem to think it’s there for decoration.
You mean, it’s not? What else would you use it for?
We don’t think the indicator stick is a decoration, but rather a decoration hanger for items such as air freshener.
but do you use the ‘cheapo’ or Francois Bigelow’ for men ??? -It’s very important on these Caribbean Roads !! btw I was born in North Side- does this make a difference ?????
Start with controlling the brainless speeding truck drivers.
Good.
Now start patrolling the school zones in the afternoon, too. Apparently “School Zone – Speed limit 15mph when flashing” is either something that 90% of drivers don’t care to follow, or else 90% of drivers can’t read.
I was passed by a speeding buffoon in front of Savannah school earlier this week, probably because he/she was in a hurry to get to the liquor store or home to watch Judge Judy. You know, something important.
Can the new signs be bigger please? I find them hard to read when I am drunk.
Perha because you are on the wrong side of the road?
What good is change without enforcement?