The additional hump at Tamavua Village has slowed down traffic considerably during peak hours. Commuters through Princes Road have to follow the que for more than 45 minutes daily to simply drive over the humps and its light traffic thereafter.
It has been often said that access to roads was means to generate economic activity and growth.
Question is, how can there be economic activity when workers are stuck in traffic for over an hour and sometimes two hours.
The mental and physical impact of sitting idle over a period of time can be daunting for some workers who will take time to recover to be productive at work.
Now we hear in the news that Tamavua Village is threatening to close the road due to safety concerns after road deaths within the portion of the road along the village.
If this was to happen, an influx of traffic along Kings Road will simply bring vehicles to a standstill which will be detrimental to the economy.
I strongly urge the Minister for Infrastructure, the Fiji Roads Authority and all relevant stakeholders to take a hard look at where we want to be with our road network and systems.
They’ll have to be creative and innovative with their plans and it should be achievable and sustainable in the long term.
We’re adding vehicles to a road network and system that simply can’t handle the influx and if we don’t do anything about it soon, we’ll be perpetually stuck.
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