Dear Editor:

 

Last evening the Prime Minister set out the government’s plan for what he called “The transformation and modernization of New Providence”. It is evident that the Prime Minister believes that such objective is achieved through the expansion of existing roads and building brand new roads. We disagree.

 

Perhaps most importantly, we do not believe that New Providence can be modernized without dramatically improving public transportation. That will only happen when sufficient and adequate bus depots are established, when buses are upgraded and when there is a consolidation of the system. New Providence is simply not large enough to build roads that would assure us of improved traffic flow. However, when fully operational an improved public transportation system would reduce fuel and vehicle import and significantly improve productivity as people will spend less time commuting to and from work.

 

Among the elements of an enhanced public transportation system should be safe school busing; the creation of depots with adequate parking for persons wishing to park their cars and ride public buses; a high tech WiFi enabled system that would allow persons to track buses via their cell phones; and facilitating and encouraging the private construction of a multi level car garages south of Bay Street to accommodate persons who work Downtown.

 

The pursuit of those initiatives would create hundreds of temporary and permanent jobs and improve the national wealth of The Bahamas in ways new roads never could. Economic zones featuring artisans, retailers and vehicle detailing employing hundreds could be significant adjuncts to the depots.

 

One of the fundamental problems with the road works is that no one has clearly outlined what the expectations are in terms that we can understand. Indeed, even the Prime Minister failed to articulate the benefits of what he called “The transformation and modernization of New Providence”. For instance, perhaps it would be useful to say that the road works when completed would reduce travel time by X percent, assuming that is an objective. It cannot be that the primary purpose of the road works is just to build and expand roads merely to say we have “modern roads”. The reality is that the new and expanded roads all converge at the same bottlenecks. For instance, one can build as many highways that lead to West Bay Street in the vicinity of Saunders Beach as one wishes, the unfortunate fact is that all the motorists will wind up on the same single lane road. In addition, we can extend as many new roads onto the Eastern Road as we would like, it still will not solve the traffic problem.

 

Interestingly, though not surprisingly, the Prime Minister offered no comment on the fact that people whose properties were taken in pursuit of road improvements have not been compensated after many years. These persons have watched in amazement as the government has overlooked them and while going out of its way to compensate affluent business owners who found themselves in similar circumstances.

 

Furthermore, while hundreds of small businesses have been affected by the road works, the government has not acknowledged its legal, moral and commonsense obligation to compensate them for their losses.

 

The Prime Minister talked about building parks throughout New Providence, yet the overwhelming evidence is that the government has largely abandoned the existing parks. Whether it’s the park in Seabreeze or Flamingo Gardens, or Golden Gates, they are all un-kept and in some cases invite undesirable behaviour.

 

The Prime Minister suggested that the rust problem in the Eastern end of New Providence will be resolved once the 24 inch pipes are replaced on Robinson Road and Prince Charles. However, that is not true. The fact is that many of the residents in East are affected by rusty pipes that run along side streets. It is not until those pipes are replaced that their problems will be fully resolved. In that regard, Water & Sewerage should be required to provide residents with a timetable for replacement of those pipes.

 

When this government’s 5 year term ends, they will have spent $1.3 billion of the Bahamian people’s hard earn money on capital works including $230,000 (not inclusive of architectural fees) for bathroom facilities at Saunders Beach. It is up to the Bahamian people to decide if $1.3 billion was money well spent and whether our standard of living is better as a result. You decide.

 

 

Yours truly,

 

Lindon Nairn