The Min­istry of Works erects fan­cy ex­pen­sive elec­tron­ic bill­boards on the Beetham and Churchill-Roo­sevelt High­ways. In­stead of us­ing these for use­ful in­for­ma­tion it puts re­minders like "no talk­ing on cell­phones" and "fas­ten seat belts." Every dri­ver in T&T is well aware that us­ing a cell­phone or not fas­ten­ing seat belts is il­le­gal. They do not need those signs to tell them that. How­ev­er, a large num­ber of dri­vers are un­aware that the right lane on the high­way is an over­tak­ing lane and not a fast lane or a lane to cruise along well be­low the speed lim­it, ob­struct­ing traf­fic.

I heard a li­cens­ing of­fi­cer com­ment­ing on this lack of knowl­edge by some dri­vers a few days ago on TV but the min­istry does not think dri­vers need that in­for­ma­tion. The bill­boards should have this in­for­ma­tion so that dri­vers are not frus­trat­ed by the id­iots who hog the right lane be­cause they do not know or maybe they do not care. Sim­ple put "Keep left ex­cept when over­tak­ing" on these bill­boards.

Nju­ru Beard

Barataria