Drivers fume over return of traffic jams
(CNS): With students back in school and parents back in the office, traffic congestion levels have quickly returned to pre-COVID-19 levels for commuters in the Eastern Districts. Drivers are fuming that government has failed to take the opportunity to press the reset button to better manage the commute for thousands of workers coming into George Town at the same time every morning.
Previous talk of retaining flexi-hours and home working for both government and the private sector employees has failed to materialise, as cars have been bumper to bumper again this week. Even though current estimates suggest that the population has fallen significantly with the departure of many work permit holders, the traffic woes for people living in the eastern end of Grand Cayman continue.
Drivers have been venting their frustrations all over social media, with people living in East End and North Side back to getting up at 5:00am to make it to work for 9:00, and those from the populated areas of Newlands inching their way to work in traffic backed up to their doors. Tearing their hair out over the sudden return to the same significant traffic jams that were blighting working lives before the pandemic, the main question people have is why government has not taken the opportunity to implement a new approach.
CNS has contacted Deputy Governor Franz Manderson, Premier Alden McLaughlin and Minister Joey Hew, who is responsible for roads, for comment on what is evidently a missed opportunity to introduce staggered working hours and retain home-working in government and about incentives for the private sector to do the same. We also asked about moves to introduce better public transportation, as well as innovative measures for car pooling and other ways for people to move around.
Although over the last few months all three men have talked about these ideas as ways of dealing with the country’s traffic problem, we are awaiting a response regarding our latest inquiry about the sudden return to the old normal.
Just three months ago, answering a question from CNS, DG Manderson said that the “silver lining” from COVID-19 had been the seamless transition many civil servants made to doing their jobs at home. He said that remote working would become a more common option in future, even when public sector offices reopened. He said the experience could “fundamentally change the way we operate” as well as alleviating the traffic problems.
But drivers are asking what had happened to that idea, as government workers appear to have returned to the office en masse.
Minister Hew recently said that ongoing roadworks, which began under lockdown, and a change to school hours should alleviate congestion over the next few weeks. However, there seems to be little evidence of any improvement.
The premier also indicated late last year in his strategic policy statement that dealing with traffic congestion was a priority for 2020. And while the COVID-19 pandemic interrupted plans, he has spoken often of the need to find a public transport system that will negate the need for the growing number of cars on our roads.
The COVID-19 restrictions demonstrated clearly that allowing people to work from home had a massive impact on the road congestion. Suggestions that government could incentivise employers to allow people to continue using technology to work at home for part of the week and to stagger work start times do not seem to have materialised.
Category: Local News
Hope these are some of the questions Wendy asks today at the press conference – what are government plans to increase the work from home option for both public and private sectors?
It would be unreasonable and backwards if Government implements vehicle importation and ownership restrictions BEFORE implementing a GOOD public transport system.
No one should have to give up a sure means of transportation (personal vehicle) without a viable option but many would if we had an alternative!
Move CIG paper pushers to Bodden town and let’s get a rail system over head.
The main point is this. They have had 6 months of unfettered access to both the airport, and to fix the road near the 4 way lights near the airport. (which needs a bigger roundabout and double lanes towards that horse ranch) In order to stop the congestion.
and double lanes all the way through to the savannah bypass. 6 months of little to NO traffic.
and only 1/3 rd of the savannah bypass was completed. Took them 3 months to figure out the bypass to the roundabout starting towards savannah was uneven. And they had to repave it 3 times.
wasted opportunity, to alleviate the traffic once and for all.
I live in East End, I leave home at 5:45am the latest and I’m greeted with bumper to bumper traffic at the old drive-in theater at 6am.
The lack of proper management by managers in the civil service is preventing their staff from taking up the opportunities for remote working and flexible hours offered by the DG. Managers just stuck in the past want to see the warm bodies in chairs whether they are doing work or not.
Leave at 3:00 am. Suck it up.
I leave at 1am
I leave before I have arrived home the previous day.
Oh I used to dream of leaving before I arrive home the previous day!
Luxury.
I started all my commutes over 10 years ago, and I have still not once arrived at the office.
Well done lads
Spend your nights with your George Town mistress.
Nothing gets fixed by CIG. Ever. But the people keep on thinking it will. Why? Nothing gets fixed by talking bout it. But that is all they do here. Is the dump fixed? Frank Sound school? CIG run businesses like the Turtle farm, Cayman Airways, etc. all cost millions of dollars to keep open. Caymanians do not realize that run right thigs like these in the real world make money. Here they lose millions of dollars every year. This is the way things have been done in Cayman for the last one hundred years. It aint gonna change until the final failure. Until then just get used everything getting worse a little each day. Its the Caymanian way.
LOL. You all believed Alden when he said we would not simply go back to business as normal….we have and its worse.
We had a 5-6 month window to make valid and much needed changes but govt were too busy only focusing on Covid to come up with a great NO PLAN. All they have accomplished is creating more departments, more civil servants, more expenditure. And now an independant LA assembly…I wonder how much more salaries they will give themselves over the already 180-250K now to do nothing positive.
And then on top of that, you all actually believe their ridiculous numbers and mathematical wonders on the reduced population…note they gave a number of who left and who came in but did they ever confirm an accurate or true population pre-Covid?
The real number is the core of traffic problems and theres no money to improve the infrastructure because all the wealthy developers who create the need for increased infrastructure are the first to get a concession on millions of dollars of infrasture fees due to govt.
Dont expect a public transportation system anytime soon. They are only interested in providing services for the wealthy on SMB so that they can be shuttled for free to get their groceries. Anything for the elite. As Alden says, “its good business”
Lots of people are moving to and living in Bodden Town and the eastern districts and the problem is increasing every year.
Apply zoning laws and regulations to our country that limit the supply of housing that can be built in those areas to prevent and simultaneously increase the density in and near central George Town and the employment centers.
In addition, it is high time that developers pay the price of the negative externalities that they cause as they are most definitely not paying their share. For instance, they build 100 homes that cause 500 additional car trips per day but don’t contribute to the building of new roads. Also, these same homes will play host to some 200+ children that need to be educated but they don’t contribute to the building of new schools.
In truth and fact, the current system is a boondoggle for developers who are subsidized by the general public as they make all the money and pay no taxes. The funds come out of the general fund.
All that the Gov. needs to do to stop this problem, is to increase the speed limit from 5am to 8am from 40 to 65 miles, so those going to work early will get out of the way, living those commuters that go to work at 8am to 9am free space.
The same way in the evinings from 3pm till 5pm from 40 to 65 miles per hour, this will reduce trafic by 50% or more.
You are dreaming!!
That’s not very smart
Always an Id$%^ with these ideas. People are killing themselves and others on a 40MPH zone, imagine if the speed limit goes up! You are really mad to even think about that!
Bodden Town to Savannah takes over an hour at 615 am, caused completely by school buses and cars pulling out from side roads.
After that, it is a relatively “quick” 25 minutes to George Town.
What has CIG done to address this? Nothing, nada, zilch.
What would address this? Extend the bypass from Hurst Road to BT. Keep the school buses off the road until after 715 am.
Extend bypass to NS and BT and build roads off bypass to nearby residential roads at lower valley and BT along the way.
Is that why they put a porta loo in the middle of one of the roundabouts
That’s an art installation.
I thought it was Alden’s new office?
Things we could do:
1. Have two main roads into town. At the moment all the main roads from the east merge into that one road going to hurleys. That’s why the traffic is especially bad on that road because it’s the ONLY way into town from the east. Although there’s really no space to put another road, unless they build a bridge over the north sound, but that may cause water pollution from the drilling.
2. They could hurry up with that improved public transport so people will opt to use that over driving. The buses we have now are terrible and derelict. Maybe we could follow the UK and introduce double decker buses to hold large amounts of people at once.
3. Move the airport. I know the new airport’s been built so this most likely will not happen any time soon but the airport should be moved. I feel like it’s in a really awkward position, slap-dab in the middle of town, causing everything around it to be all jumbled up together. We could move it to East End, then the remaining space could be used for roads and more space to build.
4. Extend the east-west bypass to East End. At the end of the bypass on Hirst Road, we could build a roundabout and extend the bypass to at least Frank Sound. And have connecting roads from Bodden Town and Breakers to join the bypass. This will get people off of queens highway so much, so the traffic won’t be so bad.
Pie in the sky. Who will pay for your suggestions ?
The money we save from not building the port.
#2 😯 double deckers? 🤭
It was just wild suggestions you guys! We definitely don’t have the money for all that right now… we can only dream 🤷♂️
Coming into town from the East the problem starts in BT on the one road to countryside, long before the queues at Spotts straight and the traffic at Hurlys. Coming home the opposite way round. You need 3 hiurs to get to work and the same 3 to get home again, dog tired.
Airport and government offices need to move East. EW arterial (both lanes) needs finishing to NS at least and preferably somehow joining with LPH and bypassing Hurleys.
Stop with the crap!!!! Just too many people. Damn….. Government do your job.
CIG has already pledged to serve too many gods, now they can’t deal with collateral damage. There honestly is no plan of action to remedy any issues because they never anticipated any problems with overdevelopment in the first place.
God gave us the opportunity to press the re-start button. There are just tooooooo many people on this island! They are not working from what I see. Just driving around all day doing what???? The powers that be needs to do their JOB – a whole lot of these needs to goooooo!
Too many people? 😯😦😧😮
Did public bus transport ever crossed your mind? It works everywhere’s is the world. Don’t be embarrassed to ask Bermuda for help.
But taxi cartel won’t allow that to happen.
God??? How about you thank the real person…. the dude in China who are a bat.
Over 2000 cars have arrived on island since March. Unless the Govt clamps down on vehicle importations (Particularly out of Japan) and also putting a limit on car dealerships the situation will only worsen.
I think you should be the first to volunteer to give up your vehicle
So what is your problem with Japan? An import is an import, country of origin is not relevant. I have bought all my cars from Japan, because I prefer RHD which is a better fit for driving on the left.
And properly aligned lights not pointing in drivers faces as with LHD on left side of road. Nobody seems to fix this with LHD imports.
I can only drive 1 car at a time. Your argument doesn’t solve the problem.
Sure, if it’s only you living at home. But if you drive your car to work, your wife hers to work, your kids theirs to work and your helper hers to school,then you are all selfish wankers with more money and cars than sense, plain and simple.
I think we would achieve much more if we hauled all the unfit vehicles and drivers off the road.
Why can’t we build a overpass from Bodden town to camana bay empire?
And ferries Rum Point to Kaibo to Duckpond to Red Bay and CBay?
Ride your bike.
And get killed by a car
Would love to. Scared. Can we have bike lanes?
The many ignorant will just used them to pass or park.
Less chance of dying if I catch the ‘rona
Mostly all talk no action.
mental health facility.= prison
children’s secure unit =prison
old peoples d=facility=pines
child week? hehe
coral protection=destruction by ships and boats
A hot mess this is. Employers do not want to embrace flex work arrangements mainly because they dont trust employees and can’t micromanage and bully from home. Government should incentivise employers to allow flex options by reduce permit fees or other costs. But government is addicted to work permit fees.
The locals do not realize how the traffic mainly impacts them as they are more likely to move and live in the eastern districts as they are priced out of town. 2 hours one way from Bodden Town to George Town is unacceptable. The quality of life for families and children waking up at 4:45am to get to school at 8am is now poor.
There is no where else to build roads. It’s an island. Come up with long term solutions that workSo. Public transport, work from home and anything else.
Also big organizations like CIMA and Maples etc should be encouraging flex working arrangements and not mandating a full return to office. They are contributing to the problem.
Maples (law firm) has only a fraction of employees back to the office, most are at home and they are very open to flexible working. My husband works there and he’s still at home with no plans to return to the office anytime soon! They seem to understand that it’s about the work. Not the warm bodies in the building!
That’s all very well for busy lawyers, but hopeless for trainees. Where do they get trained if not in the office? Flextime could be the death of training young Caymanian professionals.
Email, telephone, conference calls and video meetings. It’s really easy.
Email, telephone, conference calls and video meetings. It’s not difficult at all.
They are not that lucky to get a job as long as work permits are granted. All they will get is excuse after excuse as to why they can’t be hired.
Excuses or legitimate reasons?
It doesn’t have to be all or nothing. For example they could work from home 2 – 3 days per week. But private firms don’t see it as their responsibility to be part of the solution. Government should lead by example and then raise fees on firms who don’t follow suit.
Nah, Alden already done that.
I would try getting training at a school. Businesses are not schools.
Only if you are a dinosaur or ostrich.
Must be nice! Other law firms (and other businesses) are not being so flexible – they just want everyone back in office!!
The Government likes to pass laws (and did so during Covid that ensured people stayed in their homes or be fined), so why don’t they pass a law that flexible start times and working from home schedules in offices/businesses be mandatory, so as to help with the traffic – and businesses that don’t comply will be fined.
Problem solved!!
I hear Appleby’s mandates everybody back to work or look for a new job.
What about financial services .. talked to this guy who said his entire office voted to go back to office! I find that really hard to believe, but don’t know if this is the norm.
Your user name is obnoxious AF
My guess is that as much as 50% of the population can work from home. Offices for the sake of having an office have to go.
#defundthenra
Of course people are upset
I personally spend almost 2 full hours per day usually in bumper to bumper traffic to drive into work and drive home after this island is what? 22 miles long I live just short of 8 miles from my workplace in town, and it takes me at least an hour (on a good day) to get to work.
Did the math and assuming I work every working day for a year and encounter my 2 hour average commute to and from work (minus weekends and public holidays of course) totals 500 hours or in a more quantifiable scale 20.833 days per year of just sitting in traffic.
I went to university in Canada and had to commute about 8 miles a day to get to my campus from where i lived and I was able to do it on public transportation in 30-45 minutes in a city of almost THREE MILLION people, but it takes me longer to drive the same distance here because of piss poor planing and a lack of public transportation along with households of a few persons having 2 or 3 cars clogging up the roads all going in the same direction.
It is utterly ridiculous serious changes need to be implemented stuff like:
-Using eminent domain and demolishing houses and buildings that should have never been approved or built on the roadside and which now leave no room for road expansion and other public works or that restrict roads if that is what it takes at this point so be it, pay people for the inconvenience and get to work.
-restrict the importation of cars and the amount of cars allowed per household with strict fines for offenders found, confiscate and destroy cars if persons refuse to comply.
– prevent expats from importing cars especially persons who do not plan on staying for extended periods of time.
– limit personal importation of vehicles for resale, modification or recreation.
-create a viable and effective and affordable public transportation system preferably one that does not involve minibuses or better yet using the roads at all ( a island wide monorail system, ferries for persons going directly from areas like Bodden Town to West Bay or the Seven mile stretch) etc.
– Mandate partial staggered work hours to prevent everyone rushing out at the same general time, most people are headed to work between 7-9 even if a third or quarter of those people worked from home for a bit then went in at a later time it would help reduce the sheer amount of cars all rushing in one direction at once.
and those are just a few ideas.
Eliminating some of the in my case 2 hours and that pales in comparison to the time some people spend traveling or sitting in traffic on a tiny island like Cayman would result in a more productive healthier society, not to mention save Caymanians and residents millions of dollars per annum on fuel costs and vehicle maintenance from constant usage, it would also reduce the amount of traffic accidents freeing up police resources to focus on crime and proactively patrolling rather than directing traffic and watching lines of cars inch by as they do now. Persons would have more free time in their day, more discretionary income to spend stimulating the economy in meaningful ways (not lining the pockets of fuel distributors who we all know mark up prices and rip us off on the daily while paying their workers next to nothing)
We Caymanians love to talk about how important supporting the family is here, what could be better for a family than having parents get more time to spend with their kids and spouses helping them with schoolwork, and just generally bonding with them taking part in leisure activities reducing stress and wasted time sitting in a car doing nothing.
There is no reason for the issue to have gotten this out of hand, this island is too small for a laissez faire approach to car ownership and usage,this is not the continental United States though we seem to have adopted their mindset of car ownership. We have limited land area, limited space for mass expansion of roads, so at some point we WILL have to face this decision it is a matter of when not if. As our population grows, why not be proactive, because this will only get worse as time goes on why let this issue fester, How many more hours do any of you want to be stuck in traffic per day before you say enough is enough? 3? 4?
And none of this is new, these proposals aren’t rocket science, Any Gov. brave enough to actually roll up their sleeves and get to work (hard as it may be to handle this) would surely piss some people off, but this current system is untenable it has to be done at some point and I am sure many more people would rather not be stuck in traffic for 2 hours a day and understand that tough action is needed.
The Government was happy to run hand in hand with the cruise lines who only wanted to exploit Cayman as a destination for a multi decade deal that would have seen them receiving profits for infrastructure that only they would end up using.
I for one would be totally behind a multi-decade deal with a group or consortium that could provide and maintain a reliable system of public transportation that could effectively mitigate the necessity of using cars which would benefit all of us on Grand Cayman and our guests, selling day passes to tourists who want to go further out in to the island, advertising attractions that otherwise take too long to travel to etc.
The possibilities are endless and I just hope someone is brave enough to really put some of this into action, it won’t be easy, and there will be growing pains Caymanians are especially reluctant to change but this or something like this would be far better than the alternative.
Really unsure how anyone downvotes this. It’s a pretty sound, rational approach. I guess it shows what we’re up against.
I think a large issue is that many people living here have never experienced good public transport.
There are people who are employed to manipulate thumbs up and down the world over. It is very strange that most of the irrational thumbing comes in favour of the government, its position and its policies.
I would ask Roper if he knows anything about it. I know he would laugh it off, but when COVID started and his “advisors” arrived from the UK, there was always a block of about 10 votes on pro-government points in the morning and as the day went on and normal people voted, the balance was redressed.
Cyber warfare is very potent.
I mean who actually likes being stuck in traffic? Yet why are there so many weird thumbs causing mindf*ck?
Methinks the cyber warriors got bored and lost the plot.
Sometimes it is best not to shoot in case you give your position away, eh?
Be a little more subtle and perhaps we can be convinced that being stuck in traffic is a good thing?
It always catches my attention when the slant turns to ‘advisors’ or when other conspiracy theories like New World Order, contrails, anti vaxxers, feel that groups of people are conspiring to control them or manipulate them.
Heads of state can barely organize a press conference with a coherent and consistent message amongst their own staffers and politicians and yet some think they are capable of mounting a concerted effort with other countries, involving foreign languages, cultural, and religious differences for an end game of influencing or controlling others? You’re giving them way too much credit.
What would Ropes end game be? Really?
I think your other answer of people are just pushing buttons of others or being defiant or intentionally disruptive seems far more rational and logical.
Maybe something to do with length of the post? Probably better suited to a viewpoint article.
F*ck public tansport. People living here never experienced an uncrowded Island.
Well, with all your commuting I’m glad to see you still have time to submit a valid 70 line comment on CNS. Type on!!!
Trust me I have had ALOT of time to think about this issue, this is not just something I wrote off the cuff (multiple 500 wasted hour years in fact)
You would think the Government would be more wary of letting people sit stuck in their cars with nothing better to do for hours a day than think about all the problems on these Islands but maybe that’s just me
In my mind there is a reason why when people call in to those morning radio shows when they are driving in to town they they are almost always royally pissed at the CIG
Just sayin
63 actually, but pretty close.
Excellent post. Totally agree.
I find a few of your comments completely bias and that’s why I downvoted.
If not wanting to be stuck in unnecessary and completely avoidable traffic for 500 hours a year makes me ‘biased’ Then anyone with a working brain should be ‘biased’ as well
There is no valid excuse for why traffic on an island with less than 70,000 people is this bad, it is just a combination of incompetence laziness, poor planning and fear to actually take up any slightly controversial action even if it actually has a measurable improvement on people’s lives, not to mention the buckets of money that certain well off business owners make off selling gas here to thousands of people who have no choice but to sit in idling cars for hours a day blasting their AC and wasting gas (in fact one of the members of the Government benches literally has registered interest in a gas station)
Good until I got to you suggesting that expats should be restricted from importing vehicles, stopped reading there. It has to be same rules for everyone honey.
No, telling expats they can’t import a car when anyone cal still only drive one car at a time is bias.
I agree with you about most the other points though.
Too many people in a small landmass. Everyone who steps off a plane gets a vehicle. THATS where the problem starts. Restrict vehicle ownership, improve public transport.
Here is an easier solution than limiting people’s ability to import and own cars and I need far fewer words to communicate it:
1. Bus system with real buses operating on a schedule. Even if it’s a money-loser, especially in the beginning it’s worth of a government subsidy for obvious reasons.
2. To the extent possible, expand the road network, try to implement things like bike lanes, carpool lanes etc. There are limited gains here but it should still be optimised.
Flexible working
Move the airport
Use water taxis from spotts to gt allowing free parking at the sudo cruise port.
Extend the duel carriageway to Northside
Control traffic with traffic nanagement software linked to traffic lights on tge roundabouts.
Move the airport where exactly ?
To the East of Northside, providing jobs to locals over that side of the island and freeing up land to create access routes into GT and beyond. Put it in the middle of the bush!! And make it so it won’t flood in a hurricane for goodness sake!
East end! Duh. But the cost to do that now makes that plan obsolete.
Can anyone tell us what was going on at the Hurley’s roundabout during rush hour traffic Thursday going home?
I have the same question. It was not like it was just now even yesterday. It was the old full half hour of idling and it would have been another half hour if I’d needed to go as far as Hurley’s, let alone beyond it.
Why did they not put every paving machine on the island to work when we were all off the roads? They exempted plenty of other stuff. We should have a full brand new road network by now. Nothing else they exempted caused any positive cases; no workers at the airport got each other sick. So why wasn’t the NRA EVERYWHERE while they had the entire road network to themselves?
There was an ambulance too
NRA “fixed” it.
Death trap for anyone trying to pull out of the Health Care end of Grand Harbour
A young cyclist and a car collided. Unfortunately it took over 20 mins for an ambulance to arrive to assist the young girl. The police and I tried to keep the traffic flowing, but at rush hour it was bound to be bad.
You mean a car ran into a person on a bike? Please tell me she’s okay?
The ambulance has no wings and no doubt also had to get through the same traffic?
A child got knocked down off a bicycle.
Sad that my kids won’t experience riding a bike all over where they live because people here have no regard for life.
Global warming is the answer. In another 50 years we can all travel anywhere over Grand Cayman by boat from our houses built on stilts.
2.58pm There was a popular video in the UK of a car that went straight at a roundabout at speed, it hit the mound in the middle and took off airborne for over 100 feet. Now that’s the way to bypass the jam!.
We need a few over passes. Hurley’s first. Nothing else will work short of a by-pass bridge across north sound or a rail system.. More lanes leading to bottle-necks is pointless.
I am very concerned about the large number of poorly maintained trucks that share the school traffic with us in the morning. Too often we get stuck behind a vehicle that is not only shedding loose, wet marl but is also belching thick, black toxic exhaust.
Some drivers take risks by overtaking these trucks in order to avoid being stuck in a crawl behind them.
If they have to be on the road can they not wait until the school/work rush is over?
we need at least 2 lanes opened up each way from Agnes Way through Bobby Thompson connecting to Smith Road by Cricket Field. This is where the bottle neck is.
Sick of the noise from them trucks too, many clearly constitute noise and environmental nuisance elsewhere but here nobody seems to care. And will someone tell them their horns are for emergency warnings not for honking at your friends all day long. We can hear them for miles.
I am so grateful for my employer…my entire office is still working from home and no plans to change that anytime soon. Beats the hours of traffic I used to fight every morning by miles.
More employers need to do this instead if forcing ppl back in office. Especially people who were working productively during lock down.
In my office this has just become another excuse to play favourites. My own secretary gets to work from home but I don’t.
Not very inclusive.
Hew has no interest in dealing with the traffic problem in the Eastern Districts. Simple.
Putting in all of these extra lanes in the highway from Tomlinson roundabout westward does nothing to solve the problem. Three laneS, six lanes or whatever converging at Hurleys roundabout is STILL the problem. That is where they have to deal with.
Someone told me yesterday that Dart is building a road from the airport, to Camanabay. This is a road that should be connected to traffic coming from the east. Build a connection that BYPASSES Hurley’s roundabout all together. Build it along the northern coastline, starting somewhere up in prospect. Greater structures and engineering features have been built. This isn’t rocket science. The problem is, it’s just politics.
Have you ever looked at an aerial map of Cayman? How do you bypass Hurley’s?
Are you proposing a bridge or causeway over the North Sound?
Yes
Effective water taxis from Newlands and Northside to Scott’s Barcadere and Camana Bay would be a good start.
Hmmm… Why is everyone heading westbound? #Backtonormalcayman
Underrated comment. Govt should lead by example and move all operations east. Literally zero traffic going other way.
Government should actually move online, thereby delegating traffic to the internet.
Banks too.
Stop indicating right when you are going g straight at a roundabout.
2.58pm There was a popular video in the UK of a car that went straight at a roundabout at speed, it hit the mound in the middle and took off airborne for over 100 feet. Now that’s the way to bypass the jam!.
That is what the driving schools teach. No idea why.
Why? It simply means that I am not turning off at the next exit. I am continuing on. When I pass the exit before the one I plan to take then I switch to a left indicator. Simple.
When you do not indicate then I have no idea what you are doing so I have to stop. All signs on a roundabout say GIVE WAY, i.e. only stop if needed.
Indicate what you are doing so traffic can flow.
No it doesn’t. If you are indicating right onto a roundabout it means you are turning right or moving to the right. They don’t mean ‘not this exit’
2:58p – WTH are you talking about? It is a RARE occurrence when anyone uses their indicator here, much less in a roundabout. I’m not sure they know what they are for. (‘They’ = those that do not use the little stick thing on the side of the steering column)
Drives me mad. If you had indicated, I could have proceeded!!
That alone would get traffic moving! Just indicate your intentions!!!
Well, that and learn how a 4-way stop works.
free money making solution:
all 1 person occupant cars pay $5 congestion fee to enter gt during 7-9am.
People will just pay it like they do in London.
Take the money and use for a proper public transportation system. Also increase the vehicle licensing fees for the same purpose.
The fees are already expensive enough. They just need to tackle to taxi bus mafia but cig doesn’t dare.
While we haven’t maintained remote working anymore, our team allows for flexible schedules. It improved employee morale by a ton and prevents a flood of cars at 5 pm.
Eg, worked 30 mins extra Monday? Take it back on a day when you’ve completed your work early. P1ss off 30 mins early. Want a 15 minute lunch? Sure. More time to pick up kids and groceries too.
Despite productively working from home and having no evidence to say I was wasting time, my boss always put up a stink attitude whenever I said I would be working from home after around Julyish. Guess he misses my face in the office.
Never bothered asking again and just started showing back up. Shrugs.
Dated old school mentality. You dont have to be in someone’s face to be working.
Yes, even an employer forced a Caymanian hard working employee to resign because they wanted to continue working from home (various reasons why it was justified but the employer did not see it that way!). One day the worker had remote access to the system. and the next day they did not, forcing the person to come into the office!
This is sad. God sees all and we all have to answer when our times comes…..God forbid they went through the same scenario and have the same reasons to justify remote working!!!!!! For some of us Family comes first.
To add to this, the efficiency of civil servants in sectors such as Planning and BCU showed a marked improvement while we were all locked down working from home. Once they got back to the office it was business as usual: deliberating, bureaucracy, and an overall lack of care for the jobs they are supposed to perform..
That whole Planning and BCU operation needs to revamped. If I private entity can do that job in a more efficient and timely manner then the whole thing should be outsourced.
Add the companies registry to that list. Never known them respond before Covid-19.
more roads is not the answer. hasn’t worked before, will not work this time
Correct, it will only change the location of the bottlenecks. The island has reached a population and congestion level that cannot be reversed with the built-in constraints due to a lack of BIG vision and foresight 20-30 years ago.
Changing the habits and expectations of residents will be key. More work from home (requires improved ICT infrastructure of course), staggered office hours, and a modern public transportation system (ideally with its own lanes but lack of enforcement will nullify any benefit).
Making Cayman, at least George Town and West Bay walkable/bikeable is a romantic afterthought too.
10:05pm
Offices located to the Savannah/Bodden Town area would alleviate the traffic into town. How much insight does it take to move forward? Government/Planning should be pushing ahead and encouraging developers and companies to have split offices.
Just may stupid idea.
Says someone who probably lives in the western side of the island.
20years from now we’re going to have sky ways.
Stop complaining as you are part of the problem. Why everyone go in vehicle solo?Share with other people. Work flexibility hours.
I know! People who are part of problem are complaining about the problem.
I fixed it by getting a scooter. It’ll reduce my life expectancy no doubt, but I’m not stuck for an hour each way now.
Try tell the boss that part about flexible hours and I will.
There are a fe problems that could solve everything. When traffic cops are out on the roundabout by Red bay primary traffic flows. Why not install traffic lights instead on problem roundabouts? It’s really hard for most people to go on a roundabout unless they think they have 5ks of clear space so just eliminate the need for them to back traffic up with there incompetence as drivers.
Any construction or maintenance vehicle shouldn’t be allowed on the roads between 7-8:30 or 4:30-5:30 either.
Why isn’t there are designated school bus pick up for children who ride them instead of the bus stopping multiple times like they are a public bus trying for any fare? These poor kids who live far from their school have to wake up too early to have a proper breakfast and get ready for their day. It’s sad.
Obviously better public transport is key but the CIG won’t do that because they don’t want to lose 30 taxi mafia votes. Don’t get me started on Flex, they charge the same as a taxi so it’s a useless platform.
Agreed! Traffic lights should be implemented by the roundabouts instead of having an officer on location. Even if it is to operate for a few hours like early morning and anytime after 4:30pm. It is indeed really hard to go through a roundabout in peak hours and people are not giving you an inch of space to go through, it is a constant battle.
Maybe we should have accepted the Chinese design for our roads.
The Red Bay roundabout is in fact totally unnecessary. CT and Hurleys roundabouts may also be unnecessary.
With a single direction traffic flow designed and implemented in a smart way, a lot of issues could be alleviated.
Of course the major flaw in this plan is the word “smart” – 3 chances of that happening: fat, thin and no f’in chance at all.
Thought Jokey Hew had it all under control? 🥱 Fix the damn dump.
You made me laugh with the “Jokey” lol
The by-pass at Hirst Road, Newlands, must be extended to “Breadfruit Walk”, Lower Valley, as an immediate priority. Forget the extra lane that seems to be appearing between the Chrissie Tomlinson round about and Red Bay, this will cause even more congestion.
So what have the drivers done to assist? Why does it always have to be someone else to resolve the issue?
Check how many cars only have 1 occupant. Ask them why they choose not to car pool some/most/all days? Or ride a bus? Many could stagger their hours but choose not to.
A clean safe reliable and efficient bus service will be needed before anyone can be asked to rely on it!
Exactly!
If you’re sitting in traffic in the morning YOU are part of the problem. See what YOU can do to make things better instead of moaning and b..ing about it. You know your life, you can figure out what to do to prevent standing in traffic.
So I must just not take my kids to school?
The biggest contribution you can make to global warming is not have children (also helps traffic). Everyone please at least consider
I’m a responsible parent. Waited until I was in a stable relationship and we are a family. You should preach birth control and education instead of telling people the only way to ease your commute while driving in your car alone is for a stable couple to not have kids.
Said the smart arse from his Penthouae on SMB.
I live alone & work alone. Cannot work remotely. Not on a bus route. What do you suggest? I’m 60.
Something like Uber ride-share would be perfect for you. I wish this government was forward thinking enough to promote these type of technology based solutions.
Retire.
I am all for car pooling but the way I see some of the busses swerving , breaking and up on your bumper that would certainly be the last resort for some. I would never set foot in one of those buses, I rather walk.
I would gladly ride a bus if they were a decent size and had decent drivers.
I do not think that you are looking at the issue realistically, with all due respect. People are living very fractured lives. One can agree that if it coincides with practical and efficient reality of daily life’s comings and goings that carpooling is an excellent idea, however, that is not the reality which the vast majority of folks are contending with. I fully agree with the need to stagger working hours as a valid solution among other proactive and workable measures. One problematic issue which immediately comes to mind, in regards to schools, is that it would require the entirety of the student population to be bused to school and in addition to the costs involved most parents are not going to be comfortable leaving their kiddos alone at home in the interim hours when they leave out for work. In my humble opinion there is the overriding need to put overpasses at the major bottlenecks and choke points like at Hurleys. With the amount of times they have redone that one roundabout, it could have probably paid for the overpass itself. The issue is not going away. The practical and necessary solutions cannot be railroaded into nonexistence by those who think that everyone should be on a bicycle or a bus. It simply is not the reality in Cayman, to say nothing of the problems which the minibuses create with their asinine driving habits that often cause wrecks which hold up traffic for hours on end.
Materialist analysis? In my CNS comment?👍
Not having school busses for both public/ private schools begins the domino effect of having too many single occupant cars after dropping children off at school
I went to private school and I would have been scarred for life by riding on public school buses. Those children are feral animals and they are transported together accordingly. The good public school students are picked up by their civil servant parents; only the animals take the buses.
Solution. Lets now create a virus that negatively affects children’s ability to learn in school.
We already have that. It’s called the Incompetence Virus and it’s been running unchecked through the public education system for years.
just let people continue to work from home and you can easily alleviate some of the traffic congestion.
Most don’t work even in the office, so let them not work from home and keep the roads clear.
I’d like to mandate school buses for ALL schools. It would take a lot of cars off the road around “crunch” time.
I heard too many civil servants were not putting the hours in at home so everyone was brought back into the office.
DUH! We know they weren’t
This is part of the problem. Are employers paying you to sit in a chair for 8 hours? Or to get tasks done? If the work required is being done on time , what is the problem? Address performance issues of particular staff instead of penalizing everyone. And everyone hurts with traffic including the environment.
How about build the extension from Hirst Road to Frank Sound Road, long overdue.
Yes, please!
But will do nothing to resolve the issues
will cut traffic times y about 2 mins…you will still have tyhe same bottlenecks as you approach gt
Currently there is only one road in to town from Savanah on East. Put one accident on that road and things are shut down for hours. The second road is necessary.
A hot mess this is. Employers do not want to embrace flex work arrangements mainly because they dont trust employees and can’t micromanage and bully from home. Government should incentivise employers to allow flex options by reduce permit fees or other costs. But government is addicted to work permit fees.
The locals do not realize how the traffic mainly impacts them as they are more likely to move and live in the eastern districts as they are priced out of town. 2 hours one way from Bodden Town to George Town is unacceptable. The quality of life for families and children waking up at 4:45am to get to school at 8am is now poor.
There is no where else to build roads. It’s an island. Come up with long term solutions and work. Public transport, work from home and anything else.
Agreed. I personally know of several employers that are allowing their employees to work at home at least part of the time and another that wants their employees in the office exactly because they prefer to micromanage and bully them in person. Incentivizing those employers that are being flexible might save money in the long run.
Yeah, increase fees on those employers that don’t allow flexible working.
Only idiots would stick the airport dead centre, where it blocks access to cross the island right at the edge of downtown, then have no public transit to speak of. Light rail would cure all of this, as would Tucking the airport in the fat undeveloped part of the island. Easy fixes to save all this trouble. Cayman needs a few politicians with vision and brains to start thinking about the future. So stupid. Just look at the dump as another example. Who handed paradise to a bunch of dummies?! Lol!
So true. Also along with the airport, why did they stick all the schools and the new big government building (which employs a ridiculously unnecessarily large amount of people for the population who deliver government services a million times slower than any normal developed country)right in the or around GT which has awful roads. Such idiots. the public transport is actually the biggest joke of any country (bar third world african and asian countries) i have ever seen – the ‘buses’ are not buses, just terrible rude drivers in minivans stopping on roundabouts and causing crashes.
Valid suggestions but good luck finding politicians with vision and brains. I know one politician that has visions but not the kind that relate to scientific reality. Brains, well that’s a completely different story. Our leaders even if pooled together don’t have the processing power to manage an island wide licence plate change let alone our traffic problems.
Actually, McKeeva suggested moving the airport to East End about 15 years ago. The opposition, now the government, laughed at him.
Well everyone usually has 1 good idea.
Great for the value of my South Sound property 🙂
South sound not much better. An hour to get to Camana Bay from Palm Springs. Or maybe only have an hour commute isn’t considered bad anymore.
Sorry your commute is so long. I hadn’t considered that people who live in South Sound would work anywhere other than George Town. It’s sort of George Town’s only suburb. Besides if you work at Camana Bay, you must work somewhere that can afford to pay you to live in SMB, so why not live there? The beach is better?
LOL – Not everyone who works at Camana Bay is a lawyer or accountant who makes six figures!
or seven
6 figures is so year 2000. They are at 7 Plus now in 2020.
I know that, but odds weren’t half bad you were one of them.
Camana Bay is in George Town.
Don’t tell either of them that.
Enjoy the next hurricane because all the vegetation is gone.
Haters gonna hate.
Sold my place in South Sound at a fantastic amount so I could get out before I was underwater.
And then moved to Canada?
Back to Canada
Never been a better time to build your staircase in the road.