October 25, 2002

Dear Sir,

The Secretary of the Corporation of Hamilton and others have trotted out interminable good reasons why sporting events of every description are important to the Island at large as well as to those who participate in them. They could have saved their time and your ink. I agree.

They have not, however, made any case at all that suggests that these events can only be held on Front Street. Front Street remains the only arterial through road from the Hospital, the Fire Station and the western and most populous parishes to Pembroke. Pembroke is both the most populous and the most commercial parish. It is where 'industry' was pushed by a shortsighted Planning Department more than a generation ago. It is where much of the Island must go to do its business and where much of its goods must be trucked. Front Street is its artery.

The Corporation of Hamilton, in its blinkered approach to Bermuda's many problems, regards Hamilton as a destination. It has carefully designed the traffic lights on its only major through road, Front Street, to reduce the flow of motor traffic to a stop-go, crawling mass of congestion. Anything and everything but through traffic has priority. Even double parking is ignored. After spending millions creating another 'through road', Dundonald Street, which goes from nowhere to nowhere but was something of an improvement despite its location shortcomings, the Corporation has since obstructed the flow of traffic on it with a series of traffic lights and speed bumps giving priority there as well to anything and everything other than the flow of traffic.

Clearly the Corporation, were it a doctor, would treat an advance case of arteriosclerosis with a massive dose of cholesterol when what is obviously needed is a quadruple bypass.

On weekdays, once the car parks are filled with the vehicles of those who work in the city and beyond it, Hamilton becomes a place to be avoided. Already many hundreds of sensible drivers wanting to reach Pembroke from the west go east to Tee Street and take the narrow lanes across the island to avoid Hamilton despite numbers heavy garbage trucks now clogging these once rural lanes. On many Sundays one is now forced into this lengthy expedient as well.

The Corporation, after two generations of increasing traffic congestion and misery in its streets, is completely incapable of managing the situation at all. It is now obviously unwilling even to try and has given up any attempt to do so. The most recent City Plan doesn't address the problem at all beyond a pathetic reference to increased measures to 'pacify' traffic. This presumably means that the Corporation intends to bring the present stop-go crawl to a complete halt.

Any driver who has been lucky enough to find the tangle of lights at either end of Par-la-Ville and Bermudiana Roads out of order and dark knows that this is the only time when traffic flows smoothly through these intersections. The Corporation stops all the traffic there 80 percent of the time. The rest of the lights in Hamilton turn against any driver too terrified to tailgate like a leach. The slightest gap in traffic triggers the next light to turn red. I have long been convinced that the same people who sell traffic lights to the Corporation design Hamilton's traffic system. The Corporation and the public have been screwed every time.

Obviously our sadistic group of 'city fathers', not content with obstructing the Island's traffic six days a week, is now determined to do so on Sunday as well. I repeat, Front Street is the second most heavily used arterial road in the island and should never be closed other than for state occasions occurring on official public holidays. Harbour Nights, if so useful and popular with tourists, should be moved to Reid Street. Front Street is not a sports arena and should never be used as such.

Those who wish to watch or participate in sporting events normally conducted over roads now come to Hamilton to do so. They could equally well go to any of several much more suitable locations where the Island's traffic would not be so severely disrupted. I repeat that I will no longer support any sporting events at all, from the Olympics on down, as long as these unnecessary events continue to be held on Front Street. I urge others with clear minds unclouded by self interest or vanity to do likewise.

OBSTRUCTED

City of Hamilton