Police to curb road closures for local events
(CNS): With increasing traffic congestion during peak morning and evening hours across Grand Cayman, the police say that in future they will be restricting the amount of road closures they approve to accommodate community events. The RCIPS said it is “evaluating public procession and road closure requests in a more restrictive manner with respect to main arterial roads on the island, including the George Town waterfront.” This announcement comes just a few weeks ahead of the annual Pirates Week Festival, and police are also asking for a week’s notice rather than three days, as set down in the law regarding road closures.
The RCIPS also said that as a general rule, it will no longer authorise the closure of main roads during peak hours on weekdays (7-9am and 4-7pm) for events. “Exceptions to this rule will be rare, especially with respect to road closure requests in the town centre of George Town,” the RCIPS said.
Police said that they wanted the extended deadline from three to seven days to help the police traffic unit evaluate requests and give them plenty of time to issue notifications about approved road closures. However, applications meeting the three-day minimum deadline set by legislation would still be considered.
The RCIPS said it is committed to notifying the public of approved road closures for events in advance but was only responsible for publicising road closures related to public events. Road closures due to road works or other repairs and improvements will continue to be publicised by the entity responsible for the road work.
Notices regarding road closures for events will be posted on the RCIPS website here and sent to the local media as soon as practical, based on the timing of the request.
“The RCIPS appreciates the value that public events bring, and will continue to facilitate these events whenever possible in order to foster a spirit of community and awareness of the many deserving causes on island,” police said. “However, the RCIPS must also consider the inconvenience and delays to the general public road closures can cause, as well as the public safety hazards that congestion can also create on roadways.”
Applications to hold a public procession and request road closures can be found here. Questions can also be submitted to the Traffic and Roads Policing Unit at 649-6254.
Category: Local News
The museum does this on a regular basis. They have put the tent like this, one time a smaller one with a couple on banquet tables, and even a bouncy castle once.
Pirates week, Batabano (one festival only please… the police can now say no to one, or the other) and the Marathon. And thats it!
The Hard Rock and Margaritaville should not be allowed to have commercial ventures on the main road.
And what’s with closing off lanes by placing cones almost at 90 degree angles, often around corners, so that traffic travelling at 40 – 50 mph have to either brake hard to a near complete stop and/or merge dangerously? What are these inconsiderate nut jobs thinking?
Yes this should read Police stop the government stooges from wasting more money? These rinky dink events put on by these government minions to justify their exorbitant expenditures especially in Central Georgetown. They are so ridiculous and dangerous in some instance because they create serious traffic chaos on feeder roads which hinders emergency vehicles movement on our already overcrowd roads. Yes please for once exercise the traffic laws of these islands. Tell them find a proper venue for their rubbish and stop inconveniencing other road users in Cayman.
Harbour Drive should have been permanently pedestrianised a long time ago.
But they need to figure out how to deal with the traffic backlash of that first.
Harbour Drive should have no truck traffic. Oh… They would need to close the port, and build a new one. That would be fine.
And if a road could be closed, Cardinall Ave between Harbour Drive and Albert Panton should be a permanent mall… With more trees!
The real issue is ADVANCE NOTICE. If all media (radio/print/web) are given at least 5 days notice drivers will likely know and make some allowances. FB & a website is just not enough. This applies to ALL road closure events.
Good.
I think road works should also go through the police and be centrally managed and announced. Two weeks ago they had coned off one of the lanes on the bypass by Atlantic at lunch time backing traffic up all the way down the bypass. Best part? There were no workers to be seen, no machinery, no anything really, just a closed bit of road for no reason.
Similarly no notice when the south boound lane of North Church Street was blocked for resurfacing last week. Eventually they put a police car at Delworths. Too little too late. One had to hang a left and go past the Home Centre when the usual idiots took short cuts through the car park.
As roads are reserfaced or just plane dug up can the NRA put the yellow lines back in. Why are there no lines outside the fish market, the Waterfront Centre where buses take up most of the road as well as the rest of North Church street within reason.
Finally when can the grates in the road be aligned to the road surface. This will reduce damage to cars.
This work should be done at night like in many other countries.
I will no longer be a member of the Cayman National Museum. The events that take place that I am NEVER notified about!
As a long time donating member, I was notified about this recent event at 8:31AM, the morning of, which would have been when I was already stuck in TRAFFIC!! (Saw the email once I arrived at work)
This event was from 3P-6p with the road being closed at 730AM-9P.. Really!!?? Who got to attend that?? And when I called the museum to ask, I was spoken to by an insolent rude young woman. Told me it was ‘announced’ on their website and on FB, so I should have known… Cha!
This was SO inconsiderate of them. You could have waited until 9A!!!!!
This was the last straw. You are not getting any more of my donations!
Very inconsiderate. I haven’t decided if it was more rude or more inconsiderate, but i won’t be making any future donations either.
The employees there are rude and have never heard of customer service.
Can we please name and shame the idiot who approved the tent in the middle of the god damn road in GT harbor during rush hour last week??
See all the comments re Museum and you have your answer
The museum requested the closure and APPROVED it themselves? Well I’ll be damned!!
Museums are old news
There was a notice about this but it was not posted on the RCIPS or the press until after we got to work on the day of the event. This caused most of us to miss it and my 1 hour + agonising drive home every night got turned into almost 2 hours. I agree its high time they made this move. Had enough of thousands of us being inconvenienced before/after a long day at work for a handful attending a public event.
so the police farce can now create their own laws???
?
Good move.
Thank goodness. Some common sense! I’m guessing this is in reaction to Monday’s chaos caused by the Museum shutting the waterfront in rush hour.