Gordon Barlow

https://www.caymancompass.com/2020/0..._hsmi=83187613
This link is from today's local newspaper. Indirectly, it addresses our ever-worsening congestion, which has turned what used to be 20-minute commutes into 90-minute ones. There are something like 50,000 vehicles for our population of 70,000, and most of those vehicles are on less than a hundred miles of roads during the morning and evening rush-hours. The politicians are planning for the population to increase to 100,000, which of course will makes things a whole lot worse. There's enough money in government's coffers to build all the new roads needed, but will our small-island culture be able to cope with that kind of development? Watch this space!

Jamesy5008

Why waste money on roads and cycle lanes when there is a port to build, Smith Cove to destroy and an economy to annihilate? Thankfully I walk most days to work or cycle. Trying to get from Governor's Square to South Sound in a car after 4.30pm is soul destroying.

Gordon Barlow

True true. On the day of the mini-earthquake, it took me 15 minutes to drive from my home just south of GT to Governors Square (choosing my time wisely, in mid-morning), and 90 minutes to get back home when everybody was being sent home and clogging up the roads.

TandD2017

A proper public transport system. Buses/trains/trams/metro that kind of thing. Just a thought.

Gordon Barlow

Well, maybe in theory... But not for 70,000 people!

Pulaski

They could build a bridge-causeway from Rum Point to West Bay and have the world's most comprehensive ring road.

Gordon Barlow

Good thinking, Pulaski, but way too modest for our egotistical politicians. A bridge to Miami, via Havana - now you'd be talking! Then, we wouldn't even need those two Boeing Max planes that have been sitting at the Airport for the past little while. They could be sold back to - oh, I dunno: Boeing, I guess - and the refund would pay for the bridge. Sounds good to me.

Jamesy5008

If Bojo can build a bridge from Stranraer to Larne then Breakers to Kaibo is a goer.

Gordon Barlow

Just to bring this thread up to date... The corona virus has put paid to all our traffic-congestion problems! With no cruise ships coming in, and half the businesses on the Island (Grand Cayman) closed down for the duration, the traffic numbers have gone back to about 1970's numbers. (I wasn't here in 1970, but I'm told. We spent a weekend here in '68, and it was pretty quiet then. We came to live here in '78 when there were a lot, lot, more cars on the roads than there are now.

OK. I'm going to update my Virus thread in the Caribbean section.

Gordon Barlow

Just an update. Our roads are still pretty empty, even in the daylight hours. (We're all banned from driving at night, except for "essential" workers.) Without tourists - the borders are expected to stay closed until at least the end of August - the rental-car companies can only rent to residents, and not many of us are in the market. The big agencies are renting maybe 10-15% of their fleets, mainly mini-vans to essential businesses ferrying their employees to and from work five at a time because of social-distancing rules.

No repair shops are open yet, which is a nuisance. My old Toyota Windom (1997) has three windows that don't work, so I have to live with that inconvenience. (A First-World problem, I realise, but still...!)

Jamesy5008

The stranglehold is loosening and at last Uncle Bill's will be open so I can get tyres for my bike. And I think CIG have been pressured into letting us dive again. It was a stupid idea anyway not to allow that. But then again a lot of what has gone on here has been stupid.

Gordon Barlow

Yes, diving allowed from next week some day, I think. So many stupid regulations imposed with zero logic. We could swim in the sea but not lie on the beach??!! Reason: one person lying on the beach will morph into a reckless crowd...

uk_grenada

No coughing underwater, and masks must be worn covering nose and mouth, with social distancing - 2 metres from any fish... The bug can be cured by dousing your kit in and gargling with bleach prior to all dives.

Gordon Barlow

When I was a kid, if we had a cold or anything like that we were encouraged to swim in the sea. And it did help cure us!