Parking here, there and anywhere in SVG

05.FEB.10

Editor: We have over 24,000 registered vehicles in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, so I expect that we will have many road and safety issues. However, some of these can be avoided.{{more}}

Each day, I journey to and from Kingstown via the Long Wall and Cane Garden route on my way to and from work. It is already ‘hellacious’ navigating the streets of St. Vincent, but this particular route is even more so.

From the moment I get to the corner where the Long Wall settlement begins (on my way to Kingstown), I have to attempt to see around three parked vehicles in the corner; two of these vehicles are SUVs that block your vision entirely. I cannot attempt to go around them because I will be blindly facing oncoming traffic, and this may lead to an accident.

Less than 3 yards on, there is obstruction on the other side of the road; another row of four or five vehicles (one of these is a septic truck) parked on the road and runs into another corner. So as quickly as I clear first hurdle I encounter another. Is this fair to motorists? Where is the Road Traffic Division when you need them? How can we allow people to park around corners and in corners with impunity? How can this be acceptable when this is one of the main arteries of traffic to and from Kingstown?

As a motorist, I have to deal with other motorists who are not schooled properly in road traffic rules and regulations, but to have to deal with vehicles parked on the street in blind corners on narrow roads with heavy traffic is totally unreasonable and intolerable. The Long Wall/ Cane Garden route is not a private driveway.

I have seen motorists who are sick and fed up and some who are just road hogs bully their way through this maze by ignoring the oncoming traffic (regardless if the obstacles are on their side) to continue their journey. I am amazed that we do not have more accidents in this area. I am appealing to the Road Traffic Division of the Royal St. Vincent and the Grenadines Police Force to look into this problem.

A Concerned Motorist