NORWOOD, St James – It wasn’t as big a problem as feared but there were some hiccups along Middle Road in Norwood, St James, earlier this week with some motorists scrambling to turn around after seeing the freshly installed one way sign.

“The police were out there on Monday morning and they were there to ensure that motorists, who may not have known, did not travel up the road now designated as a one way,” community relations officer with the western office of the National Works Agency (NWA), Janel Ricketts told the Jamaica Observer.

The change from a dual carriageway to single lane traffic was made last Friday and Member of Parliament for St James North Western Dr Horace Chang had expressed concern that there may be crashes caused by uninformed motorists. He also noted the importance of having traffic police on site when schools resumed.

Ricketts told the Observer that the first day of school was indeed the first real test of the new system and from all indications, things went relatively well.

“So far, everything is on track and we continue to monitor and encourage persons that they should obey the one way. It’s a very narrow road and anything can happen,” she warned.

“Pay attention to the signs because we don’t want anyone to be travelling up and there is another motorist coming without the expectation that someone is coming up because that could cause some problems,” Ricketts added.

She said the NWA will continue its public education campaign to get the message out to commuters.

Councillor Joshua Cummings, (Jamaica Labour Party, Montego Bay Central Division) also indicated that the process has been fairly smooth since the road was changed into one-way flow, especially after barriers were erected that made the route clearer. However, he would like to see more police assigned to one end of the road.

“I plan to speak to the police on it and I should have that discussion at infrastructure meeting at the [St James Municipal] Corporation,” he said.

For now, he has added his voice to the call for motorists to follow the rules. He stressed that they are being asked to make a relatively small detour to access Felicity Road.