Tonight the number of golf carts zooming in San Pedro, Ambergris Caye, is unknown. That figure will soon be determined by the Traffic Control Committee created by the San Pedro Town Council that wants to better control traffic. Hipolito Novelo found out why it is important.



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The fact is that as long as we continue to see development and our population grow exponentially, we also see traffic increase. We have more people so need more private vehicles (golf carts) and more delivery vans, dump trucks, garbage trucks etc. Control will be difficult as we see more and more people living further out of the town core who need vehicles to get back and forth for shopping, banking, dining etc. Because the island is narrow there are only a few streets that must pass through town if someone wants to get from north to south or vice versa. I tend to schedule 40 mins to travel by road 4 miles if the travel includes passing through the town center. All towns and cities experience similar traffic related issues. Rather than less vehicles we need more controls, more parking areas, mass transit solutions - of course, this will change the entire "island flavor" that we all love about San Pedro. Is another town or two on Ambergris Caye the solution? We would need another water taxi hub and airstrip to handle the movement of people in other areas on the island. This is not going to be an easy or fast fix.

This is a very illogical way of looking at the situation. I wrote an article to the newspaper years ago when they were talking about a moratorium on golf carts. The title of the article was “People Equal”. Golf cart is not a problem until someone is driving it. You can’t have it both ways where you want more and more tourist coming to the island and expect to have less traffic.
Further, geography of the island is the main limiting factor. There is only so much land for roads parking etc.
It’s not the island of 50 years ago where there were three Sand streets. As the island develops further And further from the town itself, it requires people to have modes of transportation. You can’t expect people to walk from secret Beach to the bank in town.
So you might compare the island to a restaurant. A restaurant has a seating capacity. The island has a people capacity.

To take this logic a step further bywarren - the people capacity has not actually been maxed out - San Pedro Town is at its max. If you look at the island you will see that San Pedro Town including the urban development is probably about 15% of the island's capacity. The vast majority of the island and its land is undeveloped. What we need is another settlement or two developed into towns so that the stress and pressure on San Pedro Town and its infrastructure are alleviated.

Ok, to take the step even further. San Pedro and ambergris key doesn’t have sufficient infrastructure to support the current population. My simple logic tells me that infrastructure needs to be provided for the people that are here now and sufficient to handle future development before that development occurs.

Yes I definitely agree on that point!