City commuters up in arms over relocation of bus stop in the downtown

As we told you, a number of streets in the City were flooded due to the rains over the past two days. The downpour sent commuters scurrying for public transportation to be able to get to their destination. This morning, commuters found that the established bus stop in the downtown area had been relocated much to their chagrin. Duane Moody has that story. 

Duane Moody, Reporting

The adage goes that with change brings problems and sometimes rejection we add…And this is what is taking place in downtown Belize City where commuters and bus drivers are irate about the newly introduced bus stop at the corner of Regent Street West and West Canal. The bus stop was initially installed near the courthouse and was moved to the junction of Water Lane and Regent Street West. But today, it was removed again and installed a block up. We found residents up in arms especially given the weather conditions today.

JR

JR, Bus Driver

“This dah pure nonsense; dehn have yet for somebody get hurt on this corner. From that corner to this corner, ih mi better off dah that corner because dah mi more space deh. To this corner, there is no space…no shelter for the people; under rain, under all different difficulties. They wah di dodge people fi di get jack dah this corner because this corner has no type of security.  Dah people di suffer, but if everybody just di talk and noh do anything about it then dehn wah continue to do whatever weh dehn feel like.”

Duane Moody

“You think it is unfair to them that dehn noh even di get stop closer to downtown and especially on a day that it is raining?”

JR

“Well it is unfair but like weh dehn say, dehn need to come up and say something. If everybody just stand up and noh say nothing, well this wah continue.”

Tasha

Tasha, Commuter

“I think dah pass B.S. The same way dehn could fix the roundabout, they could find a bus stop fi di bus drivers them.  Frustrated because I mean I stand up by deh so and I had no idea that the bus stop deh all the way up ya so now. So I had to walk from deh all the way yah so. Then the bus still have to go all the way around fi come back across. It noh di make no sense. The mayor noh know weh he deh di do. He di frustrate people.”

Even more concerned was the proprietor of the well-known Marlin’s Restaurant. Douglas Young says that the stop will affect his business both economically and health-wise.

Douglas Young, Proprietor, Marlin’s Restaurant

“Di traffic officers right there move the customers from here and tell dehn dehn can’t come in here. Dehn have to go park way by Habet; dehn can’t park here again. That is their law that they put because they say it is a bus stop.”

Duane Moody

Douglas Young

“A bus stop here along this stretch?”

Douglas Young

“That’s just today. And then the people weh dismount from the bus, dah right ina di drain dehn go in.”

Duane Moody

“Why is it a bother to you?”

Douglas Young

“Because it is a popular place…it is a popular restaurant. I don’t know stop the customers from even park in front of my door. So I noh know what is the problem with them.”

Councilor Responsible for Traffic, Alifa Elrington-Hyde says that the changes that will be implemented over a period of time are all in an effort to prevent congestion in downtown Albert Street.

Alifa Elrington-Hyde

Alifa Elrington-Hyde, Councilor Responsible for Traffic

“Our Belizean citizenry need to now come to terms with the fact that the council has a vision. We are trying to make a change in the city and that is what we are doing. So we are trying to find the best place that will be the least congestion for people to offload and on the buses and that is why we’ve change where the bus stop now is to Regent Street West. That is causing the least congestion at this point in time. And it is going to go even further because we are going to put in time frames in which the buses are expected to pick up people, drop off people; the amount of time the buses can stay where they are. We are going to do all those things. A lot of improvements are coming within the transportation system and you all should look out for the improvements that we are going to make within the next year. It’s the intention to make that downtown area very pedestrian-friendly, which means that we will not be allowing the heavy traffic of the buses to go down Albert Street. So the buses will now come and be taking the canal side coming through to come around Regent Street. So there will be no buses going downtown Albert Street anymore. Especially with the change now with the taxi area and the new median that is within Albert Street, we are looking to relieve the congestion on that street so the buses now have to go down the canal side and come up Regent Street.”

Duane Moody for News Five.