The Editor, Sir:

Traffic Schools as suggested by Garth Rattray in his Gleaner column yesterday is a great idea. It is high time that we institute some remedies in this regard. The bad driving he mentions is creating havoc on the roads.

We are all of the opinion that something positive can be done about the bad driving in Jamaica. I contend that a large percentage of drivers on the roads in Jamaica paid to get their licence. That is one problem that needs addressing.

However, what do we do with the many drivers that are already on our roads. Many did not even attend a driving school. Driving schools should be licensed and monitored.

Defensive driving

I came across is a programme in the United States called defensive driving schools. How this works is that the courts send you to a school where you are taught defensive driving.

It really improves your driving skills and tells you for instance that every accident can be avoided. In addition to your ticket where you pay a fine, you are required to attend a driving school to learn the proper rules of the road, among other things.

In Jamaica, this could be run by the Jamaica Automobile Association and the initial setting up could probably be financed by the insurance companies. The programme could be self-funding, as the drivers pay to go to these schools.

There are some others ideas that could ease the flow of traffic in our cities. Ideally traffic on our overcrowded roads needs to have at least one uninterrupted lane of traffic moving smoothly and in each direction at all times. There are too many interruptions nowadays, causing traffic to back up.

Wider Road intersections

Our road intersections are where most of the delay in smooth traffic flow takes place. The intersections need to be splayed much wider than they now are. When larger vehicles are turning left into the traffic stream, they have to block the other lane of traffic travelling in the opposite direction.

With wider splays, this does not have to happen. With wider splays also filtering into the left lane should be allowed, especially at red lights.

Another idea is to have buses, and probably taxis, pull out of the lane and into designated lay-bys which should be at ALL bus stops. It should not be too expensive to create bus/taxi lay-bys at regular intervals, and where these exist the bus drivers should be prosecuted if they do not use them.

This way, the chaos created by bus drivers at peak hours by them stopping, slowing down and speeding should cause less interference in the flow of traffic.

I am, etc.,

JOHN MAIS

jrmais@gmail.com