MONTEGO BAY, St James — ILLEGALLY parked taxis and absent-minded pedestrians are making a mockery of the traffic management plan that was introduced three months ago to make the streets of Montego Bay safer.

“From all indications, it is working well… you may notice that most of the streets are not as congested as they were before, however the greatest problems and challenges we have are the illegal parking of taxis on the streets and the pedestrians who do now know exactly how to use the streets properly,” said police officer in charge of Motorised Patrol at the Catherine Hall Police Station, Inspector Melvin Dennis.

Speaking to the need for an ongoing public education to sensitize pedestrians to observe traffic lights and safety rails, Inspector Dennis said he was fearful that people might be seriously injured or even killed “because they cross at any time, any place, even when the light is on green”.

On Tuesday, the National Works Agency (NWA) continued its drive to educate the general public on the proper usage of the roadway at the Howard Cooke and Catherine Hall Primary schools.

However, in addition to public education, Inspector Dennis wants to see the implementation of a jawwalking law.

“Unless there’s a law where people could be arrested for jaywalking, the problem won’t be solved; we need to get them to understand that signs and signals, road regulations must be obeyed by all.”

Intersections which are particularly dangerous are

*St James and Union Streets;

*Church and Barnett Streets and

* The Transport Centre on Barnett Street.

Montego Bay Mayor Charles Sinclair conceded that while pedestrians are “still learning the system, they still want to move around as they wish without paying attention”.

However, he expressed confidence that they would eventually learn, pointing out that he was trying to partner with the NWA and the private sector to enhance the public education aspect.

Pointing to the taxi problem, the mayor said that approximately 50 per cent of them was co-operating.

“…but quite a number of them still want to stop anywhere and at any location but we are doing the enforcement with the Transport Authority,” he added.

But according to Inspector Dennis, it’s a game of cat and mouse.

“On any given day you can see them playing cat and mouse with the police… many times their vehicles are seized and they come with all sorts of stories. We know that unless the police are there on a permanent basis we will not be able to curb their activities, but we are relentless in ensuring that they comply with the law so we will continue to prosecute; we will continue to seize the vehicles until they learn to comply.”

After years of bottlenecks being created throughout the Montego Bay commercial district, the NWA implemented the system last December with the help of financing through the Tourism Enhancement Fund .

A Traffic Management Centre is to be created and housed at the Church Street Police Station in order to provide real time information on the traffic situation in the town. The monitoring will be done through the use of Close Circuit Television Cameras that will be positioned at strategic points around the city.