“It will take a culture change to fix many of the deficiencies in our society today.” This is the conviction of a well-placed Government official with years of engineering experience. The official who was at the time speaking of, among other issues, the congestion situation in the city, is convinced that the recentlyA well-placed Govt. official with years of engineering experience believes that Durban Park, seen in this file photo, could have been better utilised.developed D’Urban Park would have in fact been more suited to accommodate a terminal for buses coming from outside of Georgetown, and even a fire station.In speaking of the terminal possibility of D’Urban Park, the official shared the view that these buses could have offloaded passengers at that location had it been made into a terminal. At that very location, buses should have been able to shuttle passengers to the city, a situation the official believes could have easily addressed the congestion situation currently being experienced in the capital.“This could have taken the pressure off of the traffic…these days we have people who had bicycle now driving cars and the city is too congested with these many vehicles,” said the official.This notion was some time ago emphasised by now Town Clerk of the city, Mr. Royston King. “We continue to import vehicles; we continue to have a limited number of roadways and we have not seen an increase in the construction of parking facilities, and that is why we have the challenge of traffic congestion, particularly in the heart of the city,” King had observed.It was some years ago, too, that then City Mayor, Mr. Hamilton Green, had proposed the “ring roads” concept to address the city challenge, whereby too many vehicles are not allowed to park within the city to create a state of congestion.A similar hypothesis was presented by Chartered Town Planner, Professor Akhtar Khan. In a Development Plan, Khan spoke to the notion that “many local traffic problems are best handled by traffic management rather than by road constructions.”Moreover, the implementation of the “ring roads”- type arrangement was outlined as a critical need in the city. This, according to Khan’s plan, could be realised if a proposal for four minibus terminals is strategically put in place to help reduce congestion. The plan highlights, for instance, the possibility of establishing a terminal at the old railway station in North Cummingsburg, Georgetown, for minibuses coming from the East Coast.In the initial stages, it was pointed out, that some of the minibuses could be allowed to drop passengers near the centre and then return to park at the terminal, but no waiting will be permitted in the centre of the city.Other terminals were also touted for Southern and Western routes, and according to Khan’s Plan “these new terminal locations will also help street vendors move from the Stabroek Market and Regent Street areas”.And since the existing theory suggests that “vendors usually move with the public, and the public moves with the public transportation,” it was long anticipated that congestion of both a vehicular and human nature could be reduced.Currently the situation that obtains, according to King, “is that everybody is coming into the city and everybody is parking in the city, and that is why we are having this serious problem”.The Government official is however convinced that D’Urban Park would be an ideal location for a terminal.And with proper development works, the official disclosed that D’Urban Park could have also accommodated the operations of the Central Fire Station. That location, it was observed, is ideally bordered by two thoroughfares – Hadfield Street and Homestretch Avenue.“Now D’Urban Park should have been developed to the extent where you remove the Fire Brigade from where it is – busy downtown Georgetown,” said the official who recalled that the Fire Station was placed there back in the day to cater to areas including: Kingston, Alberttown, Queenstown and other premier parts of Georgetown.But given the development of the city, the current location is no longer suited for a fire station the official is convinced.“When you have a fire and you make that call that fire brigade has to respond through many obstacles, and it takes away from the response time. Meanwhile, the fire is not waiting on anyone, it is going ahead,” said the official.Central Fire Station is tasked with responding to fires South up to Houston, unless the fire is at the Diamond Hospital or a Fuel Bulk Station on the East Bank; North up to the Atlantic and East to Vlissengen Road.The official noted that had the idea of relocating the fire station rather than developing a park been embraced, the fire station would have essentially been better positioned.“Had it been relocated, there would have been two access roads to allow for faster response…we don’t need window dressing,China Jerseys Cheap, we need practicality,” said the official who has embraced this theory for a number of years.
