Africa-Press – Mauritius. At the beginning, a little over twenty years ago, it was just a simple slowdown in the traffic of cars heading towards Port-Louis, near the Royal College in Cassis.
And then, as the years passed, pari passu the line of cars began to lengthen upstream, and gradually it reached the Réduit roundabout. Subsequently, the downstream slowdown was repeated in the opposite direction, i. e. to the south.
Successive roundabouts were clogged with vehicles converging there – coming or going towards conurbations such as Quatre-Bornes, Phœnix, Highlands, Camp Fouquereaux and Curepipe until the point where, for a few years already, it became almost a routine: you can find yourself at the La Vigie roundabout, forced to take your troubles patiently.
From slowing down at several points of this flow of traffic towards the capital, we have gone straight to stops that can last minutes, and more minutes – whereas we have to be on time for work or for appointments. you planned. . . In the afternoon and until very late, the scenario repeats itself, this time in the opposite direction after work.
According to those who leave the conurbations to take the M1, the situation is complicated with traffic jams, and what about the surroundings of Port Louis! Rush hours? Well, comment cynically several citizens who have to make these trips daily, there are no more – all day long, it’s rush hour! Because even if during the rest of the day the vehicular movements are supposed to be less dense than the afternoons and the mornings, the volume of traffic is nevertheless high enough for there to be no large difference between this illusion of relative lightening and rush hour.
To cars must now be added the large vehicles that line the road – for example, commercial transport including containers, tank trucks – which are authorized to circulate, according to restrictions imposed by law, outside ‘office hours ‘.
And, of course, these heavy vehicles cannot go very fast, which is not to help matters. Little by little, therefore, from slowing down to stopping, we moved on to traffic jams; then, to chaos, and now it’s really become road hell.
If the situation along the Curepipe-Port Louis axis has deteriorated under our beards, so to speak, over the years, it is not any better in the regions on the outskirts where there are also large agglomerations .
Flic-en-Flac, Tamarin, Black River in the west, Flacq in the east, Mahebourg and Souillac as well as Chemin Grenier in the south, Grand Baie and Pereybère in the north, as well as Goodlands and also Rivière du Rempart in the north- east are very busy places and therefore attract a lot of road traffic.
As for the city centers, during the weekends, they seem to turn into parking lots as the main roads are blocked by a greater number of cars in ‘slow motion’ – Mr and Mrs everyone, and family, naturally having to do their weekend shopping.
Already the parking facilities are limited, with single or double yellow lines multiplying everywhere, this further complicates things: when looking for a space to park, the motorist must necessarily slow down.
But where is he going to put his car? And there is no shortage of police officers suffering from overzealousness, especially after the new legislation on the road.
We see more often now vehicles with clogs – and at the very least, it is a very heavy measure which wastes a lot of time especially that the officers of the order, although well intentioned as regards the application of the law with rigor, often show too much rigidity, perhaps not having been trained to pay special attention to subtleties such as the law and the spirit of the law.
I speak with knowledge, having been the victim of an eye-opening experience about two years ago. I had parked my car in front of Courts next to the gate of the Royal College of Curepipe, where there were already several private cars parked.
What was my surprise on returning to my parked car to see a motorist whose car was next to mine with a young policeman. Their discussion was very lively; the young policeman was about to verbalize it – and so was I as soon as I started to open the door of my car.
He told us that this space was reserved for taxis, which we already knew were Curepipiens let’s say. . . of origin, which we shared with him, trying to make him understand that for a long time, there had never been more than five six taxis parked there.
Besides, it could be seen, with a gap that big between the taxi closest to the last parked car. Nothing could convince him. But what unpleasantly surprised us was the policeman’s response to our efforts to find a more reasonable solution to his approach, which we found too harsh.
And this is what he told us – and, I must admit, with a certain naivety if not innocence given his young age – ‘Look out for my missy, my narian bitch from Curepipe, my vine to replace for one day from Vacoas. Zone tell me go do patrol ek take a little ticket’!
Very often in town, especially on weekends, we try to avoid the main road by making a detour, but even there we stumble into collateral streets, they too have already been taken by storm – everyone having had the same idea!
We all know, don’t we, that the number of vehicles has steadily increased gradually, and we have the impression that this phenomenon has accelerated in recent times, in part admittedly caused by the improvement socio-economic and our standard of living.
Despite the extension of the road network, and the infrastructural and logistical provisions to make the flow of traffic more fluid, the delay in traffic has nevertheless increased, especially at certain critical points.
This problem, which risks becoming more serious, requires a policy considered at the highest level by experts in the field and accompanying measures to relieve both motorists and other road users.
I have never been to Singapore, but I learned from those who are familiar with this country (which our leaders are in the habit of quoting and wanting to imitate in several aspects), tell me that there are also traffic congestion… But, nevertheless, traffic is more fluid.
According to the website of the Land Transport Authority of Singapore, a series of associated legislative and regulatory measures, taken over several years, have greatly helped to achieve this much more acceptable situation. Moreover, Singapore has a public transport system that is efficient, fast and comfortable, and the price is affordable.
But what is even more important is the systematic and regular evaluation of all aspects of the operation of the transport system, and the adjustments made accordingly, which ensures its effectiveness to the satisfaction of the general traveling public. We are all waiting for the promised and expected improvement once the metro under construction becomes operational…
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