problems, Corporation of Hamilton Secretary Roger Sherratt accepts.

The already big problem has started to escalate with the increase of traffic into the capital for Christmas shopping.

Fuses are short and the generosity Bermudians are known for disappears as each driver looks out for their own interests.

"No matter what we do the demand for parking is likely to exceed available space,'' Mr. Sherratt concedes.

"Literally there is no space in the city. The alternative is to encourage park and ride from way outside the city and I think Government is looking into that.

"There are two schools of thought, do you keep on building car parks and keep having people come into town in cars or do you encourage other forms of transport? "One of the aims of the (New City of Hamilton) plan is to decrease Bermuda's reliance on private cars and encourage the use of public transportation. The Government is looking at fast ferries and ways to improve the bus service.'' As the Corporation has found there are plenty of `traffic experts' willing to offer their suggestions on how traffic in the city can be improved.

"We have literally thousands of traffic experts in Bermuda and everyone has their own idea as to how to solve the problem, but without exception their answers are that we can solve their particular problem at the expense of everybody else,'' said Mr. Sherratt, half joking.

"If they are a car driver they would like to see more car parking spaces and less space for trucks and cycles. If they are a taxi driver they would like to see more taxi spaces.

"The suggestions are really from a selfish point of view.'' Adding to the problem is the abuse of loading zones in the city. Presently there are 147 such zones catering to thousands of commercial vehicles who are entitled to use those zones.

"In doing some surveys over 50 percent of the vehicles that park in loading zones never load or unload,'' the Corporation official revealed.

"They are there to do other things, like parking to service a building, like an airconditioning truck or computer company truck, and these are very important services.

"There are also a lot of such vans and trucks that come into town to go to the bank, go shopping or go to a restaurant and they clog up the loading zones. We're going to be changing the rules on loading zones and will be having a 10-minute rule for loading zones.

"That means that if you park in a loading zone in the city centre, you must be seen to be loading or unloading every 10 minutes or you risk getting a ticket.'' Mr. Sherratt disclosed that special parking areas will be available for service vehicles which will require special service permits which won't be inexpensive.

"If it's not, everybody will say `I'm servicing, I need to park there' and we'll have a problem.'' Another group that has special needs are the handicapped and disabled and thus more handicap zones are being created to meet their needs. A new one was just added outside the Bermuda Library on Queen Street.

"We have had a great increase in the number of people who apply for a disabled persons permit and we have several hundred people who have those permits now,'' said Mr. Sherratt.

"The world recognises that disabled people are people who have great difficulty in walking any distance. They may have severe illnesses and may only be able to walk 20 or 30 yards at a time.'' "Ideally we should create disabled parking all over the city but it's trying to find a balance.'' On the issue of cycle parking, the same challenges exist, with even couriers and messengers struggling to find empty spaces as they go about their duties.

"I've already had three parking tickets this year within two months,'' said Andrene, a messenger for a top firm.

"It's not easy having to circle around town looking for a parking spot. The places that I have to go to, the Post Office, Trimingham's and Magistrates' Court, I would rather walk than ride and hope to find a spot.'' Mr. Sherratt sympathises.

"What we are having to do is create short term parking areas for cycles because we want to encourage people to use a bike,'' he states.

"We are creating a number of one-hour maximum parking bays in the city and a good example of that is in lower Reid Street. One area is outside Ashton and Gunn and the other is outside The Royal Gazette Stationary Store.

"We've added these places wherever we see a need so cyclists really need to look out for these places.'' There are over 2,000 cycle parking bays in the city with 300 more added in the last two years at the expense of other vehicle parking. The most recent was last month when 70 more bays for cycles were added at the Par-La-Ville park.

"We face the problem of too many vehicles and not enough space. We are trying to make changes to improve a difficult situation but there will be no magic answers to parking in Hamilton.

"We try to make sensible, practical changes that are in the overall best interest of the city.''