Our road structure is creaking at the seams
THE States of Guernsey has never been good at ‘joined-up’ thinking. It has always had a silo mentality when it comes to most things. And so to my point. Is it OK to keep recommending building houses under the Island Development Plan when there is no plan to also build larger roads or mitigate the traffic issues that just become more and more difficult as the roads become ever more clogged?
Look at the stretch of road along the waterfront from Town to the Bridge. It is gridlocked most days. And when they close any main roads for repairs or works, the weight of traffic on alternative roads becomes so large you have people darting down small lanes and ruette tranquilles to dodge traffic. Those small roads were not designed for that.
Also add to that the size of personal vehicles these days becoming ever wider and you have an island road structure that continues to creak at the seams.
There is of course no easy fix and there have to be some very courageous decisions that need to be taken to sort the issue out.
My suggestion would be to 1. charge a large tax on personal large vehicles over a certain size – the garage owners won’t like it, neither will the public, and 2. redesign the road structure making a one-way system on key roads. It will mean people drive further, but it could alleviate the pressure on diverting down the small lanes.
I write this letter to ask that at least someone from our government will try to do something, but having lived in the islands for over 30 years this letter is written more in hope than expectation of change.
Perhaps we could get our finance industry involved as they seem to be keen on green finance initiatives, so reducing car emissions would give someone a gold star and a bonus for doing – not just saying – something.
They could also throw in wind turbines and wave power to run our own electricity – but let’s not try to be too forward thinking here, that’s not how this island works.
SIMON SMITH
Rue des Landes
Forest
GY8 0DB