TRAFFIC JAMS: lots of ideas no action

After four months of discussion the promised April 13 revelation of plans to beat the growing traffic chaos in Panama never arrived.

Instead Jorge Garcia Icaza, president of the Transport Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, Industries and Agriculture announced that no consensus has been reached by the multi-layered committee  set up in December to decide  what to do about traffic jams, which, Garcia said, “are going to get worse”.

In addition to the Chamber of Commerce, the committee has  representatives from  Ministry of Public Works, the Transit and the National Police.

Among the items that have been discussed are the towing of illegally parked vehicles, the opening of more private parking locations, corridors for the movement of trucks, encouraging the use of public transport and carpools. Earlier in the year it has been touted that trucks would be limited to night time deliveries.

Panama’s traffic woes which increase each month with around 4000 new vehicle sales have been exacerbated by the simultaneous construction of the metro subway system, road re alignments, pipes for cleaning the bay, and  repairs to water systems.

According to analyzes that have been conduced the traffic problems are related to the number of vehicles, congested streets and buildings  and illegally parked vehicles. Because of illegal parking It was suggested that the owners of private parking  lots could remove illegally parked cars with cranes and tow them to their facilities, with  the driver paying for the service. 

This would require ??an agreement between the ATTT and the Municipality of Panama and  entrepreneurs who  have invested in parking lots.