A truck broke down on the Grove, East Bank Demerara Public Road on Saturday last, grinding traffic to a complete halt and causing several persons to miss their flights. But with no alternative route, Traffic Chief Dennis Stephens says it is something that citizens “have to live with.”
The traffic situation along the East Bank corridor is a constant struggle and inconvenience for commuters. The most recent incident resulted in several persons reportedly missing their flights because the East Bank Road is the only route to the Cheddi Jagan International Airport, at Timehri.
Despite traffic ranks being on the ground at the time of the incident, traffic was at a standstill for hours.
Persons complained on social media bitterly and some related that they had to walk to get to their destinations.
Stephens responded to these complaints in an interview with the News Room on Monday.
“This is something that we have to live with, what happened on the day in question (was that) there was a lorry, one of those hauler vehicles, broke down on the roadway and because of that economic hub (Diamond/Grove) and the narrow road, it caused a complete halt of traffic going in both directions,” Stephens said.
He added that it took a while to remove the vehicle but could not state how it took for traffic to begin flowing.
“Traffic ranks were there and because of the area, we could not do any diversion.
“We have to take into consideration the large amount of traffic that does be on the East Bank during the day so you will find those challenges,” the Traffic Chief said.
Sara Bharrat wrote on Facebook that she was stuck in traffic for over an hour.
“I arrived in the Grove/Diamond area around 7 pm and the traffic was at a standstill for about 1.5 hours. At 8.45 pm I finally gave up, and left my fiancé in the traffic, to foot it home. It took him about 45 minutes to find a way to turn to head back to Georgetown,” Bharrat wrote.
A new traffic app – Resolv – was launched last month and promised to provide commuters with real-time updates on the traffic situation on roadways across the country.
But since its launch, there have been no updates.
Resolv was intended to provide commuters and stakeholders with the ability to easily subscribe for updates via WhatsApp number (+1 (786)-244-6125) to get real-time updates.
