A new Road Act is on the cards for Dominica.
Public Works Minister Rayburn Blackmoore says the Road Act will address several concerns over the use of the country’s roads.
According to him, the issue of ensuring that there is enforcement in traffic laws is something that needs urgent attention.
“Laws have to be enforced by the police, our roads need to be properly marked and road users need to adhere to the speed limit. We are thinking of issuing regulation that speaks to limiting certain vehicles from coming to the city at certain periods. Why should we have a big container truck coming into the city at 8 a.m. and 1 p.m?” Blackmoore remarked.
He said Government’s objective is to ensure travel time is reduced and security and safety is increased.
What Roseau is in need of is a car park. Proper road sign and the names of the road are clearly visible. When I visit DA many time I am looking to see the name of the road I am entering into and cannot see it.
MR Patriot! You seems to have some serious issues and needs help,allow me to suggest that you check with the ministry of finance and educate your self and you will find out that our returning Citizens contribute millions of dollars to the development of our country maybe more than you will ever contribute. You should be called a parrot instead of “Patriot” hope we seek to assist each other rather than spread hatered. Can We all Get along?
@What Goes Around… Comes Around:
Partner you read my mind… i thought i was the only person saying all that but we are all thinking it, well at least those of us with the vision. We can do it, we too like to take a feather and act like it heavy as a rock. My partner I support you 100%
These are timely suggestions. Let’s first start with road signs, street lights and safety barriers. After successfully completing these tasks, then and only then should we embark upon other ideas.
@Patriot: We should pay the taxes we owe first before chastising our people abroad for not making financial contributions!
– police manpower should not be used to collect road tax. This is a job for the I.R., who have an electronic database of all issued license numbers and are able to tell at a glance, who is up to date with their tax. Summon those, who do not comply and pursue them through the courts if necessary.
– despite the supply of new police vehicles, highway patrols are still not in evidence
– how many motorists with prosecuted last year for d.u.i. (alcohol or drugs) ?
– how many trailer operators were prosecuted in the same period for driving equipment with faulty- or no lights, defective brakes, faulty tires or without valid license plate?
– since Jan. of 2008 signs have been in place along the road under the Mn. Daniel cliffs, prohibiting trucks/trailers from parking there. When was this ever enforced and how many offenders were prosecuted or fined during this period?
– visitors arriving at either Canefield- or Melville Hall airports would not have a clue which way to turn for Roseau, Portsmouth etc. We pride ourselves on our friendliness. Take a leaf out of the P.M.’s book and really go to the “next level”.
Turn rhetoric into action. We have the laws. Enforce them!!
@optimist: toll is a bad idear just imargin the trafic every body have to stop to pay the toll parking meters is good parking garage is very good in and outside roseau
And while you are at it, deal with the car rentals in Roseau that take up soooo many parking spots and contribute nothing to the city in the form of tariffs or fees for the use of the spaces.
Then deal with the parking issues, how can a vehicle just take up permanent residence as parking lot on a main road. get rid of the derelict vehicles that lie along main roads, charge the owners to whom the cars are licensed.
Allow the use of personal vanity plates AND MAKE SOME MONEY DOING SO, , in fact the plate should belong to an individual, and not ties to the car….. the plate can go from car to car, not the other way round, where a number is tagged to a car. Stupid concept…
No MAIN ROADS should have vehicles parked on them, stopping only, and only when necessary. Look at our new Bath estate highway, always some parked vehicle obstructing traffic
GET THE BUSES TO USE BUS STOPS and no more stopping wherever they want. Charge them if they Do. MAKE MORE MONEY THROUGH THIS SYSTEM
Do A Public EDUCATIONAL BROADCAST with A Series TELEVISION AND RADIO on our laws, and rules of the country. Many people do NOT KNOW THE LAWS. No written test anymore, so who cares.
Get regulated and standardized driving schools, not those flim flam so called driving schools, where vehicles don’t have what it tales to be licensed, far less teaching people how to drive… CLEAN UP THE ACT.
But you must lead by example, see, since all the police, other government workers, whenever in their own vehicles and government vehicles do the same things, obstruct traffic, stop where they want.
Along our coastal roads, ALL ROADS Should be free from any parked vehicles on both sides between 6:30 am and 6:pm. get up and move your car. This is practices in developing counrties everywhere AND IT WORKS. I did it in the states, I did it in Bermuda, and I did it when I lived in BIM (Barbados). So it can work here, get up in the morning and move your car off the main road. OR BE CHARGED, MAKE MORE MONEY!!! So why can;’t it work here?
In Point Michel and Loubiere, its a mess to get by in the mornings as vehicles are parked here and there and there is no free flow of traffic.
PUT IN LIGHTS TO MANAGE PEDESTRIAN TRAFFIC which is the main problem in Roseau during rush hours, children just cross at any time, with no regard for drivers, AND NO, PEDETRIANS DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY……but they think they do
And lastly: in all your plans to build new network of road, PLEASE build for the future, anticipate the issues, and problems and build solutions that are forward thinking with the process of easy upgrades, adaptability and build with an anticipated increase in all kinds of traffic. THINK AHEAD.
That highway along Goodwill/Potterville, is a WASTE OF TIME. Imagine in 10 years time, triple the number of cars, where are people going to drive? Such a main road should have double lanes into and out of town, and I hope the new highway is considering such factors.
Or else I should be doing YOUR jobs instead.
In every metropolitan city parking garages seem to be a real conservative solution to solve some of the congestion, this will mean that parking fees will be imposed on the user, for that use. Another way is to impose better traffic flow is by erecting traffic lights at main points and the possibility of a metro system, but then again, that might not be to helpful to the private bus drivers, who depend on that work for their lively hood. The great thing is that we have a problem that we had not prepared for some twenty years ago. the private sector is growing and the banks just love it.
@mainstay:
As you mention the Police vehicles. It is only now i am starting to identify these vehicles, large unmarked trucks (mostly all white) driving all around. There are a few with sirens and some marking, but that is not enough, worse yet the marking does not even glow in the dark, how do they expect to make an impact with these vehicles. The site of a police car alone should keep criminals at bay, but you have (as mainstay stated), these cars driving, not even looking side to side, so they are not seeing the man on the corner selling drugs, the man on the corner does not even see that the police comming to run and hide. We need to do better and better does not necessarily mean spending millions. Police patrol in Roseau, on foot and if the insist on wheels give them bicycles. You hear they say resources stretched or they did not have a vehicle to come see what is going on when the head quarters in in Roseau, just a few blocks from everywhere. Give them police work to do, we pay too much in tax for them to sit and play dominos!
@I agree:
My partner you sound like someone that I know and spoke to about these same issues, especially the parking meters. Now we Dominican road users are not concerned about anyone else. I saw just yesterday a line of cars parked along side the newly constructed two lane road at the back of the stadium, these cars took an entire lane all to themselves, narrowing the road down to a single lane road for two way traffic, that should not be. Not only do we need the roads to be constructed properly and marked, we also could do with a few street lights. We have 4 way intersections, roads leading to highways and we have no street lights. How long are we going to keep being in the dark, our roads are not only for us Dominicans who have grown accustomed to the near misses of the speeding passenger buses, our roads scare ppl! I wonder if we have any traffic police and engineers in Dominica and it annoys me when the traffic officer comes on tv and blames motorists each and everytime saying that they are speeding. These guys do not enforce any laws, you see double parking all the time, in the middle of Roseau, old vehicles left on the streets to rot, I say if these ppl do not have a garage a tow truck should pass by and drag these old vehicles to some area.
We widen roads in Dominica just for ppl to park larger vehicles on them so you never appreciate the work that was done because to you driving you still see this narrow road that you can hardly see what is two car lengths ahead. Now The Dominican public love DNO, we can express our opinions with no fear of being discriminated, that is where we are most bold but most ignored at the same time. The amount of gr8 ideas i have read, not only on this news article but on several others, and the authorities in question never address them. Traffic officers, engineers and politicians, the ppl are speaking and we want you to listen and act. Let us see that you care for us and what we want and not just feed us things as if we are infants and you are the parents who always know the best. We are now grown, we can think on our own and are ready to help move Dominica forward.
Well where do we start??? Maybe by marking the roads . Having wardens not Police booking people on the KEEP CLEAR SIGN Mahut to start Roseau?? Ticket fines will go a long way. OVERTAKING on the roads where ever on the road is madness everyone is in a hurry getting nowhere fast. Some BUS Drivers are taking peoples life’s in there hand. I have seen a couple of accidents on the road which could have been avoided had the drivers Just slow down. DRINKING ALCOHOL, NOT WEARING SEAT BELTS THESE RULES HAVE TO BE ENFORCE NO EXCEPTING TO THE RULES. only on medical grounds.
Lets get it going NOT JUST TALK.!!!!!!!!!!
@Account Merchant Retail:
Excellent suggestions AMR. So much revenue is being lost from potential metered parking everyday. That money could pay for myriad things like covering the gutters and maintaining the streets, installing better street signs, and even building a parking lot/garage and buying shuttle buses to shuttle people to destination points in Roseau. That itself could be a tourist attraction.
Help save my sister’s life please publish this story http://www.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%253A%252F%252Fwww.thedominican.net%252F2010%252F07%252Fdoctors-raising-funds-for.html&h=e3106&ref=nf
Good Job, a Government Minister looking after his portfolio but we need traffic lights to regulate the traffic flow, GOOD WORK D.L.P YOU HAVE MY VOTE AGAIN.
Finally, some address is giving to the road use issue. Really and truly I never understood why company’s like CDC, which uses huge trucks, were allowed to have their heavy machinery on the streets of the city during rush hours. Making it worst, they would never try to use alternate routes to get in and out of town, these trucks at the round about near Fort Young are just frustrating.
However, before new traffic laws are implemented, many measures need to be undertaken. Too many times, we rush and do things in a “too chaud, too flam” kind of manner. First, I suggest that to decrease the flow of vehicles into the city, parking lots are to be located on the out skirts of the city, in order to give road users the option of parking out of the city and taking a short walk into the city. Secondly, drivers simply park as they please; while traffic police officers pass by and do nothing about it. This also needs urgent attention. Thirdly, I think the bridges leading into and out of town need to be tolled. A toll plays on the human psyche in that, road users would be forced to think that to avoid paying a toll fee to get into and out of town, they should seek parking out of town. Additionally, the revenue collected by the tolls can be used for the necessary repair of the older bridges and the up keep of the newly built one and the one which will be built in the road project from Roseau to Portsmouth which is being undertaken by the Government of the People’s Republic of China.
I would like to make a suggestion. How difficult is it to have parking meters installed in the city? I think with the roads properly marked and parking meters installed, this could greatly help the vehicle situation in the city. Also, I think that Astaphans in Roseau had a great idea and maybe the gorvernment can take it further. I think it’s time we had a dedicated parking lot somewhere close to the city. Motorists could park their vehicles in on a secured lot for a reasonable price and then take the bus or walk into the town. I’m sure this would relieve a lot of the stress and congestion in the city.Another suggestion would be to enforce the seat belt laws (if they exist – I think they do).Final Comment – I would like to agree that our roads need to be properly marked and signs put up. I know these things all cost money, but when you’re driving up a one way road and a foreigner comes at you from the wrong direction and you have to make room and find a way to avoid an accident, then it’s absolutely clear that something needs to be done.
+1
If the police vehicles continue passing by wihtout a glance when vehicles are parked on the Keep Clear signs at Mahaut and Massacre then new laws are a waste of time
It appears that every time a minister of goverment initiate a new program for the country, some people just believe the it is time to throw a rock at it, I visited Dominica on last year and was driving between Canefield and Roseau at night and was wondering if the goverment ministers drive on the same road, apparently they do,and are going to do something about it, yes we need safety signs, lighting, road barriers, but capital developments take time and we need to support the efforts when initiated.
While I agree with Mr Blackmoore that something needs to be done about our traffic laws, something else definitely has to be done about the quality of the roads in Dominica. The craters in the roads are getting worse and people are spending more money buying tyres, fixing their suspension, buying shocks etc.
It seems like the persons who fix the roads are just securing jobs for them to return 3 months later and fix the same holes they repaired before. The only time we see “patching” done in Dominica is when a diplomat is coming down, close to carnival and independence times and sometime at Christmas. We definitely need to move away from this. For a country which supposedly has two asphalt plants (fond cole and layou) I really don’t understand why our roads have to be in the condition that they are. And if asphalt is something of an issue right now then why don’t we fix our roads with cement; don’t they last longer? You spend more time focusing on dodging pot holes, sorry craters, right now than the person driving infront or coming up to you. Putting tarish in a hole will never work because right now we are in the rainy season and as soon as we put the tarish the rain washes it off.
A long time ago when the Financial Centre was being built I thought the Government Ministries would be relocated to the Financial Centre and the old Government Headquarters would be torn down and high rise parking would be created for Dominican Drivers. Roads such as Hillsborough Street and lower Kennedy Avenue should not be used for two-parking. It is a nightmare to drive through these two streets sometimes during the day.
I hope that is something we can still consider, but please do something about our roads and do it soon.
Way to go Blackie its about time some serious action be taken to deal with this traffic and our drivers and the manner and use of our roads both in the city and out side the city. I am happy to say that during the goverment meeting with Dominicans living abroad i suggested that situation should be given agressive attention and as we all know things of that nature takes time, money, and above all every thing cannot be accomplish over night,but that`s a win, win, for every body. That will help taking Dominica to the next level. Good luck! Your partner”???????
The speed limit should be enforced as well and some roads should be made wider especially the ones leading to the airport. A reasonable parking lot in the city of Roseau for the general public with a paid time limit (let’s say 3hr parking per vehicle) would be a good idea.
To all you Dominicans sitting at your computers in North America and England making demands…come to Dominica and pay some taxes so the government could get money to do all what you ask for.
You people are so pathetic.
finally something positive. about time. good work
Mr BlackMoore that is a good thought of enforcing that act, it is long over due. we also we need a Roseau car park.
we need proper road signs. Traveling outside of roseau, we need to see larg and smartly designed boards diplay the name of the village,welcome to canefield, one mile to Roseau etc. Wehave to step up and be more morden. It is time..
I would like to make a suggestion. How difficult is it to have parking meters installed in the city? I think with the roads properly marked and parking meters installed, this could greatly help the vehicle situation in the city. Also, I think that Astaphans in Roseau had a great idea and maybe the gorvernment can take it further. I think it’s time we had a dedicated parking lot somewhere close to the city. Motorists could park their vehicles in on a secured lot for a reasonable price and then take the bus or walk into the town. I’m sure this would relieve a lot of the stress and congestion in the city.
Another suggestion would be to enforce the seat belt laws (if they exist – I think they do).
Final Comment – I would like to agree that our roads need to be properly marked and signs put up. I know these things all cost money, but when you’re driving up a one way road and a foreigner comes at you from the wrong direction and you have to make room and find a way to avoid an accident, then it’s absolutely clear that something needs to be done.
Good idea Ray!
But where are the traffic signs? Who is responsible for marking the road? Who is responsible for installing the traffic signs? Let me take a guess YOU (Ray)!!!!!!!!!
Again airport without roads, Stadium without parking, College without proper planning, ICT without backbone, Government scholarship with no contract…. Can go on and on..
This is not just done by the labor party but in general that’s the way we (Dcans) do things.