Bajan in 5 blog

Highway to where?

A sign along the ABC Highway partially hidden by overgrown foliage

While Barbados has done well overall in terms of its development (for example Barbados is the highest ranked Caribbean country in the United Nations Human Development Index) there are some areas of concern. One major cause of worry relates to road maintenance, or in Barbados’ case, lack there of.

This commentary shall focus specifically on the maintenance of road signage and foliage along the roadside. Some would argue Barbados has a high road density (more than 1,000 km of roads) considering its small size. While this is true it does not take away from the fact that residents of Barbados as well as visitors to the island deserve better.

As can be seen in the sign above, there are times (embarrassingly too often) when the foliage at the side of the road as well as the sign become one. This unification is not only unsightly it also defeats the purpose of why the sign was placed on the road….to give directions. With such occurrences, one can only imagine the frustration that would occur when a driver (resident or visitor) approaches the sign looking for guidance only to be greeted by an unreadable sign.

In addition to foliage growth on some road signs, there are times when foliage also starts to creep onto the road shoulders and when the side of the road starts to resembles a tropical rain forest.

An example of the overgrowth of foliage that is often seen along the side of the ABC Highway

As stated earlier Barbados has a high road density but the country only has one major highway-quality road, that is the ABC Highway. That stretch of road is no more than 15 miles in length, yet (as can be seen by the photos) proper maintenance on that highway can not be maintained. In Barbados, tax revenue is collected via several methods, including a 17.5% Value Added Tax (VAT) and an annual Road Tax for each vehicle. With such tax structures in place it should not be too hard to ask for better roads on which to drive and for the proper maintenance of such. What is interesting though is that if given the motivation, proper road maintenance can be achieved. This observation is based on a recent visit of a royal nature which saw roadwork done in record breaking amounts and times...more on that in our next commentary..