22 November, 2014

Dear Sir,

The roadworks at the junction of Blackwatch Pass and North Shore Road are another misguided product of the failure to control speed on Bermuda’s roads.

This junction is only a problem because of the excessive speed of motorists travelling north exiting Blackwatch Pass to turn right onto Northshore Road.

There was never a problem there until recent years as traffic speed increased.

These days, if you’re travelling west on North Shore Road intending to continue on straight and you come to that intersection, you stop, verify that there’s no traffic, and start across the intersection. Speeding traffic then appears from Blackwatch Pass and is upon you quickly. There would be no problem if that traffic was not speeding. Or if the sight lines were better — construction vehicles parked in the northwest corner of the Government House lot now make the sight lines even worse and there IS going to be an accident because of that. Not only are we paying for this unneeded construction but also we’re losing a big chunk of Ducking Stool park. For what?

There are hundreds of such intersections in Bermuda where safety is compromised because of excessive traffic speed which cannot be supported by our roads, intersection configurations and sight lines.

Are we going to put roundabouts at all of them? Perhaps we should put traffic lights at all of them? That would look nice.

STREETWALKER