Are our roads driving us nuts?

And, therefore, in a country as upwardly mobile as the Cayman Islands since the mid-1960s, it is not surprising that 50,000 registered motor vehicles now clog our streets — hood to trunk — during our daily rush-hour traffic scrum. It is an astonishing number for a country with a population of fewer than 58,000.

In fact, 80 percent of households in Cayman have at least one car, and more than one-third have more than one. Over a five-year period, from 2008 to 2012, residents imported $200 million worth of motor vehicles into the country.

That’s driven many millions of dollars into the public treasury, considering that government duties on imported cars can rise to 42 percent, depending on the automobile’s value. Then there are additional taxes on freight, fees on fuel, registration and licensing fees and, of course, duties on imported parts.

Much of that revenue should have been isolated and targeted toward road construction and maintenance for the obvious reason that if government isn’t going to limit the importation of vehicles (as does Bermuda, for instance), then it has to build more, higher-capacity roadways.

But, of course, it hasn’t done that. Instead, it has simply adopted the “landfill model”: add more to more, and the result is daily automotive congestion that, no doubt, leads to an increase in our national blood pressure and a decrease in our quality of life.

There’s more: Unfortunately, vehicles come complete with a number of problematic parts, such as tires and acid-filled batteries, which must be disposed of in great volumes. Every day, we just add them to the top of Mount Trashmore, which, of course, is also the national cemetery for all of our vehicles that come to the end of their road.

Enter the Ironwood developers and their offer to build the second phase of the East-West Arterial, from Hirst Road to Frank Sound Road, in exchange for tax concessions.
On its face, the proposal sounds attractive to us but may not be looked upon so favorably by landowners forced to sacrifice their property to make way for the highway.
Among those is the National Trust, as the road corridor cuts through the Trust-owned Mastic Trail Reserve. It remains to be seen how the Trust’s situation may be dealt with under the new National Conservation Law.

The leading proponent of the law, Environment Minister Wayne Panton has stated the Trail could be maintained in its pristine state, while Premier Alden McLaughlin has endorsed the plan that would have the road running through part of the natural habitat. Notably, Mr. Panton was absent from the stage during the promotional event at which the premier signed an MOU to that effect with the developer.

In any case, this newspaper is not taking a position on the route of the road. We are only observing that an additional road to the outer districts must be built post haste. With the opening of Health City Cayman Islands, the proposed Ironwood resort and Arnold Palmer–designed golf course, the ever-expanding Morritt’s and Reef resorts, not to mention that Bodden Town is the fastest-growing district in the country, a single single-lane road will no longer do.

The popular quote, of course, is that “If you build it, they will come.”

Well, Cayman did build it, and they came. In droves and in cars.