Cops to try out another traffic jam diversion
(CNS): The RCIPS is trying out another temporary diversion to address the evening traffic jams at Grand Harbour. Starting next Monday, on weekday evenings police will be preventing traffic entering the Hurley’s roundabout from South Sound Road and traffic heading west from Shamrock Road from leaving the roundabout at the Grand Harbour entrance. Vehicles will be diverted towards either the westbound side of Crewe Road or eastbound onto Shamrock Road.
In a press release attempting to explain this latest effort to tackle the increasing traffic congestion, police said vehicles entering the roundabout from South Sound Road needing to access Grand Harbour will be required to exit east onto Shamrock Road, travel along that road eastbound and then enter Grand Harbour by turning left onto Bimini Drive.
This adjustment will not affect traffic entering the roundabout from Crewe Road, which will still be permitted to take the first exit and can access Grand Harbour as usual, or continue onward to Shamrock Road.
The new traffic flow will be implemented from Monday 28 October at 4:30pm and will be in place every weekday evening until 7:00pm in an effort to allow the continuous flow of eastbound traffic.
The RCIPS urged drivers to follow traffic directions given by police officers.
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Category: Local News
1. definitely prevent left turn on Sunrise BLVD
2. drip feed S. Sound road traffic entering Hurleys round about
And will they have a police officer at the top of SSR at the Hurley’s roundabout to stop the idiots using the left lane to get ahead of 5 cars and push their way into the right lane. Somebody is going to get hurt!
Issue “Resident” stickers to everyone living in Crewe Road and South Sound and prohibit access by any vehicle without one.
Is the road in front of hurleys public or private?
Why is the solution always to close part of a road down now? Is government finally realising roundabouts that are designed to ‘control the flow of traffic’ do just that and slow everybody down? Now we have them everywhere and they’re having to block off parts of them. Most people driving here come from countries where they are non-existent or not a big feature of the roads, or they got their local licences before we went roundabout crazy. This can’t now be fixed. We should have had straight roads, with exits. One proper highway through the center of Grand Cayman that has the sole purpose of quickly moving cars from one general area to another is what we need. Most of the road we already have can accommodate this but they need to get rid of some roundabouts and stop adding any more.
The best it seems to me they can do without major road works is make Crewe Road and South Sound areas local access only when coming from the west so residents of those areas can get home quickly, which leaves all traffic on the Linford Pierson going through the Hurley’s bottleneck smoothly to final destinations out east.
Government should consider converting all roundabouts to traffic lights. At least with that everyone gets a chance to get on their way and are not left to the mercy of other drivers giving way. f course, it would be expensive to install and maintain traffic lights, but so are any other methods that are being tried to combat the traffic woes. Having police patrol the roads to divert traffic wouldn’t be cheap either!
My question is why are we doing this when school starts back next week Monday? Why aren’t we doing this “experiment” now when school is out???
Dumb question. If you wanted to test the capacity of something would you test it with partial weight or full weight?
Well it is partial wight now so they should’ve started from now.
First with partial weight and if that passes that test, then with full weight.
You have a point but the point I was trying to make is that the first time around when they started to divert traffic it was a complete mess, until they got the hang of it. Yes school is out. Doesn’t it make sense to try to start the experiment now and figure out exactly how they want to do it when the “weight” is partial? Or no?
The main issue is that everyone leaves work at the same time and is heading in the same direction. I don’t see the point in blocking the exit for cars to head into Crewe Road as this severely disrupts the flow of the roundabout not to mention, forcing these cars into the traffic along Crewe Road anyway. Why doesn’t the government/NRA/ etc, look into a proper public transportation (invest in buses, proper drivers, pay, insurance, routes, zoning etc) and/or either have the roundabouts controlled by stoplights, but these would only need to be in operation during rush hour as well as introduce “keep clear” markings on roundabout exits, which would stop drivers just pushing themselves out on to road and therefore blocking traffic flow. There really needs to be a long term investment into a problem which may get worse before it gets better.
the only solution to traffic…is getting people out of cars into public transport or car-pooling.
free money making solution:
$5 toll on all single occupancy cars during rush-hour.
More than $10 to try and collect it right now. But with appropriate sensors that pick up new RFID plates it will be easy to deny road licences if you don’t pay your accumulated toll fees. Then again the Ministry might rather squander a few $M on a consultant showing them how to do it.
I’m ok with this if it’s just an hour however I come in from the east to my job in West Bay. I live alone & would pay the fine if just between 8 & 9 in the morning & from 5 to 6 in the evening for example, but the morning rush is from 7 until 9 and the evening 4.30 until 6.30
The traffic is soooo much better when schools are closed. Can we just keep the schools closed all the time?
Kids aren’t learning a damn thing in the Public Schools anyway.
Mine go to prep and do quite well.
oh…won’t someone please think of the children!!!!
Yeah! It’s not like the kids are getting educated anyway.
Road engineering to control and mitigate traffic flow is not a police problem! This is not as simply as having an officer as in GT.
Moreover, you are diverting a number of officers from enforcement. The NRA the ball is in your court.
Frankly, whether we like it or not a major overpass with a toll to pay for it might be the only solution.
Say what you want about Jamaica being Third World but when I travelled there I was amazed at how quickly I got from Kingston to Montego using the new highway.
Unless you are going to control the number of vehicles and population growth then there needs to be a serious road infrastructure plan with private equity.
Has anyone from the RCIP even thought to consult the NRA who designed these rounds-a-bouts?
The systems were designed to allow for continuous movement, not stop and go.
This is a part of the problem, no communication between the end user, the designer, and the enforcer.
The enforcement officers need to first understand how these systems are designed to work, only then they can enforce those rules.
FYI – I am not affiliated with NRA or the RCIP.
Having some campaign sessions on the road to educate everyone would be helpful.
The reasons for the prior hold ups are not the school busses, it is our behavior. We disobey the rules of the instructions marked on the road, overtake on shoulders, stop to let in 20 cars at a time, leave late from home, use side roads to get ahead, offload passengers while still on the road, ……….you get the point.
We have become a society of blame. Let’s blame the NRA, the RCIP, and everyone but not hold ourselves accountable.
Let’s stop the finger pointing and focus on good resolutions.
1) Ask the NRA to share the design concept with feedback and input from the various stakeholders
2) Educate the public and enforcement officers
3) Collect data, feedback, and monitor
4) Enforce the rules agreed to
5) take the feedback, make any improvements required, and start again at 1).
If the NRA came up with idea of round abouts then why aren’t they educating the public on using them if we are not using them correctly? All I see NRA doing is laying tar down then digging it back up a couple of months and then laying mor tar down? This whole road system seems like NRA‘S LEGO project. Build it and tear it down and start all over again.
There has been a lot of information shared on how to use the roundabouts. The problem is the bad drivers … doesn’t matter if it’s a roundabout or a traffic light – there are always those that push in on a red light which brings traffic to a standstill as no one can proceed. If everyone used the roundabouts and lights properly and used their indicators, we would have way less traffic issues and a hell of a lot less accidents.
So basically we have paid police dancing around in traffic trying to act as stoplights. Maybe just put in stoplights at some of the congested roundabouts? Proper stoplights…..not the half thought idea South Sound Road ‘fix’
Exactly, how about putting him by a roundabout where he is more useful.
I thought it was just me that got annoyed by his antics! Blocking traffic every morning with his silly whistle blowing & dancing. He’s totally oblivious to driver frustration.
If you want him to entertain the cruise passengers have him by the post office or better yet, on the cargo dock controlling the taxi drivers & tour busses.
No matter how you slice it you have the same number of cars leaving Georgetown. I say forget about the port and build an overpass around prospect even if you have to charge a small toll. I bet most people would gladly pay it. Kenneth see if you an add that to your poll.
It’s actually spelled George Town, not Georgetown.
LOL I’ve been here almost 30 years and only recently paid attention to that difference! No particular reason why, just not paying attention.
So, thanks!!
When I thought it was autocorrect I forgave you. Moving here and still being that ignorant is something else.
cayman has seen nothing yet regarding its future traffic issues.
these gestures will have little overall impact
9:20pm Right here. This comment is all you need to know.
You folk better get aggressive in solving this because “Cayman has seen nothing yet regarding its future traffic issues”
No truer words have been typed…
Just wait and see how sitting on your hands about every single important issue you have (cargo port, dump, education, recycling, pollution on your beaches etc.) works out when you hide and watch.
google maps seems to be fairly accurate for traffic at the moment, the more people who use it the better it is as well.
What a mess
Think we should all praise the effort that is being carried out…..special praise to the officers that have to deal with the real problem….drivers…it seems to be working quite fine with the help of the officers..
Instead of stopping Crewe Road residents from getting home via S Sound & forcing them to double back towards town on Linford Pierson Hwy which they’re currently doing thereby causing more traffic on roads.Why don’t the RCIPS stop vehicles from taking Crewe Road local access (BIG SIGN BY AIRPORT FENCE WHICH IS IGNORED BY ALL & SUNDRY). Put orange dividers between left lane & right lane to force drivers to take the Bypass if they live above Tropical Gdns. Then there’ll be no need for Crewe Rd residents to find alternate routes and they’ll be off the road.
MCRGA!
The idea is right – the implementation would not work – as you would have to stop and inquire with all persons trying to go that route. You would accomplish similar results if you clearly communicated that traffic from Crewe road at the King’s Sports roundabout would be stopped from entering for 3 minutes with a 30 seconds “go” time in between and that any commuter who is not a resident on Crewe road should take the bypass to avoid delays caused by this new stop. Stopping this traffic trying to enter the flow as well as preventing any Westbound traffic from entering Crewe road at the same roundabout would create unimpeded flow from the bypass. Coupled with flow adjustments at Grand Harbor roundabout, it would have a marked flow improvement to traffic along the entire route.
Last week they blocked all traffic from exiting at Grand Harbour, which was a major annoyance from the perspective of coming from Crewe Road and created traffic flow through Hurley’s parking lot for all residents in Grand Harbour. Glad they’ve decided to give it slightly more thought this time around, because the first attempt wasn’t ideal.
How exactly are they going to achieve that without closing the Grand Harbour entrance to all traffic? They can’t close the outer lane before Crewe Road or they will block Westbound traffic (and that wouldn’t deal with Westbound Shamrock Road traffic in the inner lane wanting to turn into Hurleys. They have to keep the inner lane open if they are going to allow South Sound traffic to get to Bimini Drive and Westbound Shamrock traffic do the loop and head back to Bimini.
The only thing I can think of is that they block the outside lane after the turn off for Crewe Road and before Crewe Road east bound traffic joins. But that’s going to force South Sound traffic heading East or to Hurleys to merge into the inside land across Westbound traffic, and how are they going to stop traffic in the inside lane coming from Shamwork leaving the roundabout at the entrance without coning off the inside lane, which will bottleneck the traffic from Crewe Road? Or are they going to have a dancing policeman dodge the cars and wave some through and wave off others? Sounds like its going to be entertaining.
I suggested elements of this idea several times in this forum. Hopefully it works as planned.
Makes sense. Kudos to the RCIPS for being willing to experiment. I know it’s not popular in all quarters but it is essential to find out what works and what doesn’t.
Just stick with it for long enough to know for sure one way or the other!
What exactly is a kudo?
5:35, You obviously did not go far in school.
Actually I did, then went on to college to study engineering. I now make a six figure salary and have never uttered ‘kudos’ to anyone, it was never in my vocabulary or uttered in school. It looks as if it is of Greek origin, but I just prefer to talk plain English and say ‘well done’ or something similar.
kudo[ koo-doh, kyoo- ]
noun, plural ku·dos for 2.
honor; glory; acclaim:
No greater kudo could have been bestowed.
a statement of praise or approval; accolade; compliment:
one kudo after another.
You can buy them at Fosters
Is from a Pitbull song…. “esa negrita esta enterita, tiene tremendo kudooosss”
Kudo is Japanese for self defense , I happen to have my white belt in kudo , wasn’t easy man .
Is the NRA running these experiments like experiments? Are they measuring journey time? Counting cars per hour? Or are they just trying things at random and going with what ‘seems’ like it is working?
4:46 here I HOPE it’s not the latter!
Damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
People.. part of decision making involves data collection. Try different methods, collect data in the process, and determine which strategies worked best when, where and for what.
Breathe. At least something other than nothing is being done!