A group of students from Cayman International School is delving into the island’s traffic problems.
Tasked with looking into an issue of national importance, the teenagers chose to examine the gridlock on Grand Cayman’s roads.
As part of their research, the group reached out to the Compass to learn about our reporting on traffic. And we turned the tables on them and asked for their data and opinions about the issue.
The three students – Andrew Ladley, Kylie Mondor and Laia Swaminathan – all recorded their trips as part of the project over the course of a week.
Of the 36 journeys they had taken during that time, all of them were by car.
Most of those trips were to school or the grocery store, while some were for extra-curricular activities, like guitar lessons. In at least half of the cases, the students themselves were the sole reason for the trip.
The project emphasised the amount of trips that parents make because of the lack of safe, alternative travel options for their children,
All three youngsters said they would be happy to take a school bus, if there was one for private schools. Equally, they said, they would like to take a public bus, walk or use a bike to go visit friends or attend extra-curricular activities.
Relying on parents’ cars is limiting, said Mondor because it depends on their availability and decreases any flexibility around timing. She would like to attend a drama group in East End, for example, but the after-school journey is not practical for her parents at that time.
Swaminathan said she was largely a homebody but would like the freedom to take a bus when she wanted to go out.
She said she had been surprised at just how many car journeys she and her family and friends were making.
“The most obvious thing on the journey log was that everyone gets everywhere by car, no one took any other mode of transport,” she said.
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