The chaos that has been created by the traffic jams that are clogging up the roads leading in and out of the new hospital area cannot be blamed solely on the grandiose mall that has sprung up, luring thousands of consumers to the crowded triangle on the southern outskirts of the capital.
The phenomenon should have been predicted judging from the crazed beeline Cypriots made when the first McDonald’s opened several years ago, that was repeated when the
In the absence of a national development plan, as noted by the visiting European Commission delegation, knee-jerk reactions will not solve the problem.
What Cyprus needs is a mega-bulldozer that will plough its way through the concrete jungle that we have nurtured over the years and then we can start rebuilding from scratch, on proper foundations this time.
To set the record straight, the Town Planning Department cannot take the blame for everything that goes wrong in this country. It is the fault of the growing number of corrupt civil servants, dirty mayors and crooked politicians who delay approving a project in order to allow a relative or a business friend to gain a competitive advantage for a public contract.
By the time some projects are completed, they are either out-of-date or have cut corners in order to reallocate funds to other politically valuable projects. These result in road works not being completed properly, causing bottlenecks that produce excess fumes and contribute to the pollution of the land that we will all have to pay to clean up some day.
It is unfortunate that all the bright ideas will be miraculously devised in no time and implemented in order to gain valuable votes in the upcoming elections, when in fact the present administration should have demanded for heads to roll to prevent such disasters from being repeated in the future.
The solution in this case is not opening up escape routes for ambulances, because the wise Cypriot motorist (who followed the rules for the short period that the cameras were in place), will still find a gap and make a dash for it in the forbidden lane, hopeful that a cop will not see or catch him.
The alternative should be a revised national traffic grid that should consider how much the population could grow to in 10, 20 and 50 years from now.
With fuel prices skyrocketing, now is the time to consider reforming the aged public transport system that deters people from using buses due to excessive fares, slow routes and an illogical grid that makes it impossible for one person to hop on and off buses to get from one side of town to the other. It is often cheaper to take a taxi.
The same mistake of the invisible incentives to switch to alternative and solar energy should not be repeated and investors should be encouraged to pour money into private-public partnerships and efficient transport joint ventures.
Otherwise, we might as well get the bicycle out – we could even get to work faster.
