By Latrishka Thomas
Authorities at the Antigua and Barbuda Transport Board (ABTB) have moved to debunk widespread belief that its decision to install new rubberised speed bumps around the country was done in a haphazard manner.
Many drivers have criticised the project saying that there were too many speed bumps on the roads and they were being laid down in an ad hoc manner with no warnings to drivers that they were about to encounter them.
Motorists have also expressed concern that the metal bolts in the bumps are potential hazards that could cause their tyres to blow out.
But the General Manager of the statutory body, Hubert Jarvis said on an OBSERVER media programme yesterday, that “we are not going to put them on highways unless within the highway you may have a school or playground. We put [them] within that immediate vicinity but we stay away from just putting them down arbitrarily and whichever way. That’s not the case at all.”
Sean King, the supervisor in charge of road marking at the ABTB, further attempted to justify why the speed bumps have been installed in the manner which, for the most part, have been considered a nuisance to motorists.
“The decision arose from a traffic study. Whenever we receive a request from a school, a business, persons in the community, or whatever the case may be — even the police from time to time may recommend areas where speedbumps are warranted — the request is received, written, sometimes verbal. Most of the time, 99 percent of the time, it has to be written because we want to have a paper trail,” King said.
“Then a study is done by myself or somebody from the Transport Board along with the police. Sometimes we go and we watch [the area] for a while and visit it one or two times and just watch how the traffic develops at peak times, away from peak times, and stuff like that, and then we decide to implement, yes or no.”
Nevertheless, Jarvis said that the ABTB is willing to reconsider the problematic positioning of some of the humps.
Read more in today’s newspaper