Many motorists heading to work today are hopeful that they do not get caught up in the kind of traffic jam that caused many people to be late for work on Friday.
Scores of Bahamians faced a traffic blockage at the entrance to downtown, resulting in many man hours being lost at their workplaces.
The blockage occurred around 8am and still existed until shortly after 9am. The bumper-to-bumper traffic began at Goodman’s Bay and continued east on Bay Street into downtown.
Inspector Chester Thomas, who is attached to the Road Traffic Department, told The Bahama Journal that, “If there is a blockage then there is a blockage.”
Mr. Thomas also pointed out that the military funeral that was held at Christ Church Cathedral on George Street on Friday morning was not responsible for the delays because it began at 10am.
He said work being done to the Adderely Building, which is adjacent to the Church Hill Building, just off Rawson Square, was likely responsible for the early morning congestion.
Douglas Smith, a motorist who was stuck in traffic on West Bay Street told The Bahama Journal that the usual 15 to 20 minute commute to work took him an hour and five minutes on Friday.
“Obviously traffic authorities need to pay more attention to managing traffic in the peak early morning and evening rush hours,” Mr. Smith said.
“They also need to ensure that planned events do not disrupt hundreds of people from getting to work on time and causing such a loss of productivity.”
Agatha Marcelle, parliamentary secretary in the Ministry of Tourism, who is also a human recourses expert, said that many Bahamians must consider leaving for work with enough time to spare should another situation like what happened on Friday reoccurs.
“With reference to the traffic jam that I understand happened [Friday] and the productivity that might have been lost I think we have to consider two things,” Ms. Marcelle said.
“People really don’t give themselves a window of opportunity, for such an occurrence. The other thing is we live in a very small and congested society with reference to traffic and so if people can’t get into work on time because there is an event that causes traffic to back up then we lose for each person that doesn’t get to work on time – that much time in productivity and man hours.”
Ms. Marcelle explained that a loss of productivity equals a loss in revenue.
“That obviously translates to dollars and cents because you can very easily estimate the amount of money that corresponds to the amount of time, whether it is five minutes 15 minutes or an hour,” she said.
“It does sometimes discourage me when I see the amount of traffic and backup because I know that affects what happens when you get to the workplace, not only in the time not spent in the work place, but also there is a level of frustration the employee trying to get to work encounters in having to be caught in a traffic jam.”
She added that in the final analysis productivity is compromised because when the individual arrives to work he or she is not in the best frame of mind to work.
By: Royanne Forbes, The Bahama Journal
