AmbergrisCaye.com Home Forums The Cayes Ambergris Caye cars on the island??

Bywarren said "if a good looking police woman were to spank Pedro for not wearing his seat belt, it would probably not change his not wearing his seat belt - just the opposite."

In fact, it would probably give him a small hummer.

Car, vans and taxi's are the majority of the problem not golf carts so you can have it both ways. The goal should be to find a solution that provides for development and keeps in mind the safety of residents and visitors and the "feel" of the island.

Europe is a great example of how goods can be moved around in small vehicles (the Madisco and Caribbean Queen delivery vans are perfect for this island). Bermuda does very nicely with huge restrictions on cars and a strictly enforced 35kmph speed limit.

"You will not be able to limit the number of vehicles and still have development." You can, there is something called public transit (bike paths and real roads would help as well) but that'll never happen by the looks of it.

coming from Philadelphia, a rather large city, with rather old streets, i can assure you that i would be thrilled to limit the cars on the island. please bare in mind, i am living 3 miles south of san pedro, so getting to town is an ordeal (an ordeal i volunteered for knowing full well that it was a 14 minute bike ride), and i am used to having THREE vehicles for my personal use here in the states.

when i am walking down the streets of sp, and i hear the music BLASTING from the cars, it makes me sick. i hate that in the US, and i most definately hate it in Belize. it is TERRIBLE for tourism, as it smacks of inner city.

and while i am sure that i will get slammed for this, right or wrong, Belize needs tourism. If the streets of san pedro become just like those of any other poor city, i firmly believe that tourism will suffer.

a few taxis are great, work vehicles make sense, but the average belizean does not need a vehicle. period. golf cars MORE than suffice.

on the flip side, it is the only time in my life i have been so appreciative of high gas prices, and duty taxes on parts. hopefully, simple economics will limit the vehicles.

You can debate all you want about the number of vehicles, the size of vehicles and whether they are public or private owned, but until you ensure that those driving the vehicles drive responsibly and safely you will not be addressing the real problem and finding the solution.
I see little if anything being done on AC to do that. I do not consider building more speed bumps to be the solution.
Simon is absolutly correct about Bermuda. I used to visit there anually on business and you would never, and I do mean never, see a taxi driver speeding. I don't think that had anything to do with the number of taxis as opposed to the punishment for breaking that law.

fair point.

i guess i see a two pronged solution:

Limit the number of vehicles
Make sure those vehicles are safely, properly, efficiently, and ENVIRONMENTALLY safe in order to operate.

Not to be argumentative, but what does your two prong solution do to prevent a careless driver from injuring someone?

This topic started about a traffic accident due to a careless driver. I realize there are other issues facing the community like the traffic problem. But, I sure wish the community could get together and solve this issue by demanding the Town Board and police enforce traffic laws and punish those who break them. I see nothing being done about that. I think on the scale of priorities, the safety of the public should be addressed before we get our panties all tied up in knots about boom boxes and our neighbor getting a permit to own something other than a golf cart.

Must still be raining in Paradise.

again,

"Make sure those vehicles are safely, properly..."

in order to make sure, one would have to assume some sort of training and repercussions.

my panties are apparently in the same knot as yours. just worded differently.