I Support the Parking Meters – Georgetown

Published: 9th of February, 2017

This article has been archived.

Please Note: This article was not written from a political perspective and the author holds no political affiliations.

I support the Parking Meters Project in the capital city of Guyana, and here’s why. I remember a time when I used to drive through Regent Street, Charlotte Street, Camp Street, Waterloo Street, Middle Street, South Road, Quamina Street, Brickdam Street, Hadfield Street…and the list goes on…for hours trying to find parking space, and when I finally found it, it would be in a compromised position a good distance away form my intended destination.

That was because there was no law and order in the city with respect to parking vehicles, only a pattern of chaos. There was no law or order to compel any driver to move his vehicle from a particular location because, as common sense alone might suggest: “someone else may need to park there.” The only force that would compel a driver to move his vehicle was that of his own conscience, if he had one; but judging from the way vehicles were parked in the city, one would be tempted to think that the drivers’ conscience had been long devoured by rats or cockroaches.

So, sometime early in the year 2017, the government embarked on a project to install parking meters in the city to create order and everybody starts crying foul.

Let’s put things into perspective. The average vehicle costs 2 million GYD and burns an average of 7000 GYD per day of fuel. The average driver stops at a business location in Georgetown to transact a business averaging 40,000 GYD. But it’s a big problem to pay 200 GYD an hour to park in front at a location where so many other drivers need to park.

OK. Fine. Drive over to the nearest pasture and park your car among the horses and cows. Then walk a few meters or kilometers to your destination. Or park at a friend’s house or driveway or whatever. There are many places you can go to park your car for free and it would keep the city less congested, and as a matter of fact, beautiful looking. But don’t cry foul at a system that is designed to make everybody’s life better.

The next thing that the government needs to tackle is the touting and harassing of passengers at the mini bus parks. Line the buses and fill them one at a time please, like intelligent or semi intelligent human beings. Even animals have better law and order.

OK. So let’s hear your comments. Tell me why you don’t support the parking meters project. Feel free to tell me how stupid I am.