{"id":1862,"date":"2023-12-04T14:52:08","date_gmt":"2023-12-04T14:52:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/?page_id=1862"},"modified":"2024-09-16T14:21:41","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T14:21:41","slug":"init-road-safety","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/init-road-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"INIT &#8211; Road Safety"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-page\" data-elementor-id=\"1862\" class=\"elementor elementor-1862\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-35c53c2 e-flex e-con-boxed e-con e-parent\" data-id=\"35c53c2\" data-element_type=\"container\" data-core-v316-plus=\"true\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"e-con-inner\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-dd8610f elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"dd8610f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 10-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h2 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">ROAD USE AND ROAD SAFETY<\/h2>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-717d348 elementor-widget__width-initial elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"717d348\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 10-04-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p><strong>Traffic Management<\/strong><u><br><\/u>This involves steps to keep the traffic flowing safely at an acceptable&nbsp;rate. The flow of traffic is of major concern &nbsp;as even in off-peak hours&nbsp;there is usually congestion on most of our nation&#8217;s streets and this&nbsp;worsen greatly during the peak hours. Thousands of gallons of fuel&nbsp;are wasted each day and tons of gaseous pollutants are added to&nbsp;the air as vehicle&#8217;s engine idle in heavy traffic. &nbsp;The management of the flow&nbsp;of traffic will be look at with a view to alleviating the congestion and&nbsp;having the flow of traffic at an acceptable level at all times. With our&nbsp;limited streets and &nbsp;the &nbsp;great volume of traffic on them, this can only&nbsp;be achieved with the cooperation from the driving public and &nbsp;by&nbsp;voluntary compliance. For example, on a particular congested&nbsp;roadway, persons with odd number licence plate could be asked to&nbsp;leave out half an hour earlier or half an hour later and this could&nbsp;alternate weekly with even number plates.&nbsp;The ability to make a left turn on red at a stop light will be introduced&nbsp;except at certain locations where sign will be posted to indicate such.&nbsp;At present &nbsp;motorists are allowed to turn left on red at many of our&nbsp;stop lights where there is a divider. This will be expanded to most&nbsp;stoplights. &nbsp;Repairs to the roadway will be done immediately where it&nbsp;is causing a backup of traffic. The directional flow of traffic &nbsp;will be&nbsp;looked and the sequencing of lights and &nbsp;time on green will also be&nbsp;reviewed to get the best flow possible. Pedestrians will be educated&nbsp;on the proper use of the roadway as their behaviour often prove to be&nbsp;a obstacle to the smooth flow of traffic. &nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Signage &amp; Road Markings<\/strong><u><br><\/u>The lack of road markings &nbsp;on our roadways are of major concern as&nbsp;this have a major impact on the safe usage of our roads. Improper&nbsp;marking of roadways also add to the confusion and danger of using&nbsp;the roadway. For example the ending of &nbsp;right lanes which merges&nbsp;into the left lane poses a grave danger. The road code in Jamaica is&nbsp;that we should yield to traffic on the right. These markings are giving&nbsp;preference to the traffic on the left. This forces the motorist in the&nbsp;right lane to be looking out for traffic on his left and checking his&nbsp;blind spot while at the same time ensuring that he does not stray&nbsp;over into the on-coming traffic on the right. The traffic on the left does not face&nbsp;these challenges and can easily merge into the traffic on the right.&nbsp; &nbsp;<br>Missing and faded road signs are also common feature of our&nbsp;roadways and this pose a great danger. JAP will make the&nbsp;placement &nbsp;and maintenance of street signs and road marking a&nbsp;major priority. Poor placement of others &nbsp;defeat the purpose that they&nbsp;are designed to serve. This makes many of them out of view or serves to confuse the motorist. &nbsp;Many intersections which would be best&nbsp;served by four-way stops due to poor visibility have only two-way&nbsp;stops. Improper road markings also does not give motorist sufficient&nbsp;time to get into the proper lane. We are also faced with the problem&nbsp;of changes to the roadway or directional flow of traffic with new&nbsp;marking and signs however the old ones are not removed thus&nbsp;causing confusion.&nbsp;Faded and nonexistent pedestrian markings and the lack of stop line&nbsp;at our intersections poses a grave danger for road users. In the event&nbsp;that the signs are missed, these roads marking serve as a clear&nbsp;indication to drivers that they should stop. Stiff penalties will be&nbsp;introduced for the destruction of these sign and for the placement of&nbsp;unauthorised markings on our roads. Signs reminding drivers to drive on the left will be placed at strategic locations espicially in our tourist areas.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Indiscipline<\/strong><u><br><\/u>A revamped and effective point system will be one of the main tool&nbsp;used to stop indiscipline on our roadway. Many persons drive without&nbsp;any regards to the road code or for other road users. Sadly they have&nbsp;been allowed to get away with it for so long that in many ways it has&nbsp;become the norm for many drivers. Many persons are now fearful to&nbsp;travel on our roadways and avoid doing so whenever possible. Many&nbsp;of these violations are known &nbsp;to the police but little or no effort are&nbsp;made to curtail them. The lack of the use of signals &nbsp;by many drivers&nbsp;to change lane and make turns has contributed to many accidents. So too does tail-gating and impatience on the part of a lot of drivers.&nbsp;Many drivers no longer dip their light when required. The police will&nbsp;be encouraged to be more proactive and focus on issues contributing&nbsp;to our high accident rate.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The constant and unnecessary use of the horn by motorist and the&nbsp;engine break by trucks has become a nuisance. It does not matter&nbsp;the place or the time of day. It occurs both day and night, &nbsp;in&nbsp;residential areas, near schools, places of worship and hospitals. The&nbsp;absence of signs to indicate silent zones only make the problem&nbsp;worst. Motor bikes are now being fitted with mufflers which produce a&nbsp;lot of loud noise and their engines are revved unnecessarily. Steps&nbsp;will be put in place to fix these issues. The lack of lane marking contributes to the indiscipline on our roads&nbsp;as this makes it more difficult to identify persons breaking the road&nbsp;code. Great effort will be made to maintain road marking and signs.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Road Condition<\/strong><u><br><\/u>It is quite common to drive on a nice roadway and return a few years&nbsp;later to find it in a state of total disrepair. The lack of maintenance of&nbsp;our roads is one of the major reasons why our road network is in such&nbsp;a poor state. The other is the poor standard which is used in the&nbsp;maintenance and rehabilitation of our roadways. Procedures must be&nbsp;put in place for the proper and timely maintenance, and rehabilitation&nbsp;of our roads. The constant resurfacing of our roads has led to many of&nbsp;them being above the level of the sidewalk and water hydrants almost&nbsp;covered. Existing asphalt need to be scraped off before the road is&nbsp;resurfaced. Bridges are not spared either as tons of asphalt are&nbsp;dumped on them thus increasing the weight &nbsp;that the bridge must&nbsp;support. &nbsp;This is totally undesirable as it could pose a danger since&nbsp;the maximum &nbsp;vehicular weight is not revised downwards. JAP will put&nbsp;in place a proper maintenance schedule for all our roads beginning&nbsp;with our arterial roads followed by our secondary then feeder roads.&nbsp;A network will be set up with some members of the motoring public on&nbsp;various routes to report potholes and other dangers that they&nbsp;encounter in their travel. This could be done by means of an app which will allow a picture and description&nbsp; as well as the coordinates of the location to be sent by persons to have the repair done.&nbsp; This will enable the responsible agency to&nbsp;repair potholes and fix other problems which poses a danger on a&nbsp;timely basis.<br>Proper maintenance of drains will be done so as to keep the water off&nbsp;the roadway. Water settling on our roads and damaging the sub base&nbsp;is one of the main reasons why they are in such bad conditions. Cracks&nbsp;in our roads allow water to reach to the sub base and they should be&nbsp;sealed so as to prevent the water from penetrating and damaging the&nbsp;sub base.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Dangers<\/strong><u><br><\/u>Some of the major dangers on our roads are posed by missing signs, indiscipline&nbsp;drivers, potholes, improper design and marking of traffic islands and&nbsp;road dividers, stray animals and &nbsp;poor visibility due to bushes and&nbsp;improperly built walls. The danger of indiscipline drivers and pothole&nbsp;will be dealt with as stated in &#8216;Road Condition&#8217; and &#8216;Indiscipline&#8217;.&nbsp;Immediate steps will be taken to remove, modify and mark traffic&nbsp;islands and road dividers as needed. Road marking will also guide&nbsp;drivers away from these dangers. Stray animals found on roads with&nbsp;80 km\/h speed limit and above will be impounded. Beautification&nbsp;projects will be limited to low shrubs as often plants become&nbsp;overgrown and block the view of pedestrians and motorists. Roadside will be bushed and kept clear&nbsp; so that they can be safely used by both drivers and predestrians. Trees&nbsp;should not be planted along roadway for beautification as many&nbsp;motorist have been killed from crashing into these trees in accidents&nbsp;which &nbsp;might have resulted only in minor injuries if these trees had not&nbsp;been planted there. The area beside our roadway should be kept&nbsp;clear of all obstacles as far as is possible. Step will have to be taken&nbsp;to improve the visibility where view is obstructed by walls and other&nbsp;fixtures. This is especially true at some intersections where it is&nbsp;necessary to venture out half way into the roadway before the driver&nbsp;can see if the way is clear.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Safety<\/strong><u><br><\/u>A major safety programme will be launched in our schools and among&nbsp;the general public on how to use the roadway properly. Minimum&nbsp;speed limit will be set on our toll roads. Persons driving way below&nbsp;the speed limit and obstructing traffic do contribute to many accidents&nbsp;as persons try to pass the line of traffic built up behind them.&nbsp;Adequate signage will be erected throughout the country to specify&nbsp;the speed limit.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Seizure of motor vehicles<\/strong><u><br><\/u>The offences for which motor vehicles can be seized will be review&nbsp;and amended to best serve the interest of the public.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Points System and Fines<\/strong><u><br><\/u>The license of a driver should only be suspended or disqualified&nbsp;where it is deemed that he poses a danger to other road users due to&nbsp;a specific action or series of actions. &nbsp;As it stands the point system&nbsp;does not serve that purpose and JAP proposes to revamp and overall&nbsp;it. The first act will be to remove points from all non-moving violations.&nbsp; &nbsp;Other violations such as having a blown head light bulb will not carry&nbsp;points as while driving a person is not in a position to know that a bulb&nbsp;has been blown.&nbsp; Persons will also have the option of&nbsp;removing a set number of points within a prescribed period by&nbsp;completing an approved safety class and\/or a course in defensive&nbsp;driving.<br>The level of fines will also be look at with a view of having fair and just fines&nbsp; in the new road code act. Excessive fines are&nbsp; unfair and will not serve to improve road safety but instead will be&nbsp;burdensome and increase corruption. The argument that if &nbsp;you obey&nbsp;the law you need not worry about is invalid and will&nbsp;not be pursued.&nbsp;A system of accurately recording and keeping track of points&nbsp;accumulated by all drivers will be implemented. Drivers will be&nbsp;required to keep their &nbsp;address current and they must inform the tax&nbsp;office and get a replacement licence within three months of a change&nbsp;in their address. In this way persons can be notified to surrender their&nbsp;licence when they have accumulated the required points. Persons&nbsp;who are ticketed and fail to pay their fines or attend court, will have&nbsp;their licence suspended until they have met the requirements set out.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>Pedestrians<\/strong><u><br><\/u>Laws against jay-walking &nbsp;will be introduced as many accidents occur&nbsp;when careless pedestrians are hit or drivers crashes as they try to&nbsp;avoid them. The improper uses of the roadway by pedestrians also&nbsp;contribute to congestion. Ways to assist parents and discourage small&nbsp;children from using the road by themselves will be looked at. Periodic&nbsp;refresher courses on how to properly use the road will be given to our&nbsp;students at schools. The many things which pose dangers to pedestrians will be addressed. For example the erection of high barriers&nbsp; in the center of some of our major roadsways in Kingston is questionable. It is worrying to see pedestrians, including elderly persons and young children, climbing over them or at times standing on the top of the barrier as traffic whisk by on both sides. Sections of these barriers must be remove to allow for the safe crossing of the roadway.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Six Hour Revision Class<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>All drivers and motorcyclist will be required to complete, within a specified time, a course on all aspects of&nbsp; the safe use of our roadways. These include road conditions and hazards, the various effects of speed, interacting with large vehicles,&nbsp; motorcycles,&nbsp; pedestrians and&nbsp; animals. It willl also cover the navigating of our narrow and winding roads, weather conditions, night driving and the need for proper vehicle mentainance. Aspects of defensive driving will also be covered. This course can be done online or at accredited locations. Special measures will be put in place to prevent false declarations of completion of the course.<\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p><br><\/p>\n<p><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>ROAD USE AND ROAD SAFETY Traffic ManagementThis involves steps to keep the traffic flowing safely at an acceptable&nbsp;rate. The flow of traffic is of major concern &nbsp;as even in off-peak hours&nbsp;there is usually congestion on most of our nation&#8217;s streets and this&nbsp;worsen greatly during the peak hours. Thousands of gallons of fuel&nbsp;are wasted each day &hellip;<\/p>\n<p class=\"read-more\"> <a class=\"\" href=\"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/init-road-safety\/\"> <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">INIT &#8211; Road Safety<\/span> Read More &raquo;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"no-sidebar","site-content-layout":"page-builder","ast-site-content-layout":"full-width-container","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"disabled","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"disabled","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"set","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1862","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1862","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1862"}],"version-history":[{"count":40,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3609,"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1862\/revisions\/3609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/japjm.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}