NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Motorists yesterday experienced gridlock traffic within the most densely populated areas as thousands of Bahamians and residents across New Providence took to the streets for essential services today.
Officer in charge of the police traffic division Superintendent Marino Hinds told Eyewitness News the congestion was due to the large number of people traveling to utilize a small number of services at the same time.
“It’s nothing unusual from what we see all the time, particularly at peak traffic times at 9am and 5pm,” Hinds said.
“We wouldn’t necessarily say we need to deploy more officers, we just need to be strategic in the planning.”
The country is currently on a 24-hour lockdown.
Essential services will be allowed to operate on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 7am to 7pm for the general public, and on Saturday from 7am to 5pm for essential workers only.
Hinds noted that because the situation is currently fluid given the lockdown orders, there is no need to overkill the number of officers deployed to deal with traffic matters.
He said officers will be placed in high traffic areas on the days that they are most needed.
“It’s where the proliferation of the vehicles are at all of the intersections, the roundabouts and then the urban areas, because as many vehicles you may see, you can appreciate that vehicles are not necessarily on the outskirts,” he said.
“…We are going to be proactive and plan for those days that we expect traffic to increase in specific areas, because it is not necessarily all over New Providence.”
The essential services available on just four days of the week include, food stores, water depots, pharmacies from curbside and takeaway windows, hardware stores with curbside service, and gas stations for external services only.
Commercial banks, international banks and trust companies are allowed to have a skeleton team to support restricted hours of operation until 1pm on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
All businesses are required to suspend operations, with staff working remotely where possible, with no curbside, takeaway dining or retail operations.
The lockdown is expected to last until August 19, and will be reassessed near the end of the period.
