Dear Editor,

If you ask me who is an idiot I would answer that an idiot is one who consistently does stupid things. I will therefore use my answer as a reference point to the traffic gridlock that has been affecting the Corporate Area.

Apart from being idiots, the technocrats of the road reconstruction, the Government, and the police traffic department lack the vision and the cohesive networking to make the traffic flow smoothly.

What we have been seeing since is utter madness and a visionless attempt to score political points.

To effect two major road rehabilitation projects in an already overburdened traffic management environment lacks vision and common sense. It is plain stupidity.

If you listen to the soundbites from the people who have got caught up in the gridlock they seem to have better suggestions than the Government, technocrats and the police themselves.

All three parties have data to show that our main gateway to and out of the city is overwhelmed by the volume of traffic using them on a daily basis.

Constant Spring Road and Three Miles are two major gateways, and to have both gateways undergoing major rehabilitation at the same time is an idiotic move that should be condemned by any well-thinking Jamaican regardless of his/her politics.

Any psychiatrist will tell you that a poor traffic management system has a negative effect on the stress levels of the commuters using it. How can people be productive and children learn in such an environment?

If this gridlock is happening in weather conditions that are dry, imagine what will happen in a weather conditions. The worst of the traffic nightmare is yet to come when the weather pattern changes as we approach the rainy season.

It will not affect the politicians who have police escort or the availability of helicopters to the destinations. One man blurted out during his frustration after being caught up in the traffic for hours,”You will never see a government minister get caught up in this traffic, only we the poor people!”

Legacy projects should not be at the expense of common sense, as Holness would want us to believe.

Fernandez Smith

Former Jamaica Labour Party councillor

fgeesmith@yahoo.com