GUAM has one of the highest rates of traffic accidents in the country. That’s one of the startling facts to emerge from Mar-Vic Cagurangan’s two-part Variety series “Hell on Wheels” yesterday and today.
“We have more than twice the national average per capita,” public safety educator Robert Michael said. “The national average is 19 crashes per 1,000 people. Guam has 41 crashes per 1,000 people." That’s more than 6,500 crashes every year, most involving more than one vehicle.
If you get the feeling whenever you get behind the wheel that your number may be about to come up, you’re not alone. Driving on Guam becomes more of an adventure every day. You can probably come up with your own list of reasons why Guam is such a thrilling place to drive, but here are some of ours:
- Poorly-timed signals. There are places where green lights only allow 10 seconds or less for traffic to proceed before they change. Such short-timed greens only encourage the tendency to run the orange or red lights. Particularly bad are the left turns from Marine Corps Drive into Tumon northbound in front of K-Mart; into Ypao Road in front of the 76 station; and the straight-ahead green across Route 1 from the E.T. Calvo Memorial Parkway into Route 14, or Chalan San Antonio.
- Bad lane markings. Despite some painting of stripes and curbs recently, there are still places where the lane lines are almost completely obliterated. Good luck driving at night, especially if it’s raining. You just hope your headlights will catch an occasional reflector.
- Excessive speed. The top speed limit on Guam is 35mph, but there are stretches of Marine Corps Drive, Route 15 and Route 4 where cars routinely go twice that fast. Enforcement is spotty to non-existent.
- Drinking and driving. Most serious crashes on Guam involve a combination of driving under the influence and speeding. You can even buy beer by the case at every gas station, which makes no sense. It all causes us nervous anxiety, since you never know when the nut behind the wheel of that car coming toward you may lose it.
- Increasingly prevalent "Guam Bombs." They look like they’ve already been in several accidents, and you just know the drivers of them are not insured and maybe aren’t even licensed. Here again, enforcement by our underfunded and overworked police department is spotty.
There you go. Add to the list if you like. And drive carefully. We’re a car-crazy island where the average family probably has three or four vehicles. Traffic gets worse every day. Good luck!
Comments
Let us hold a signal on red for 5 seconds instead of 1 second before the cross sognal turns green. I think Japan does this. Allows the intersection to clear of left turners, reduces running the red collisions etc.
The pot hole-laden roads are also a factor. That also contributes to more maintenance done on your car, which might make it a "Guam bomb" sooner than it normally would be.
"We’re a car-crazy island where the average family probably has three or four vehicles. Traffic gets worse every day."
If we had a better public transportation system that was well-maintained and had better access to inter-village roads – or at least visible and maintained bus stops – then maybe the average number of cars per household would go down. But I don't know if that would solve the problem of bus drivers (school or commercial) driving like crap.
- pulling out into regular traffic flow at 5 mph and then remaining at that speed or something significantly reduced.
- Stopping right in the middle of the road to change lanes instead of lane-changing with the flow of traffic.
- Running red lights with the expectation that people with a green should stop or slow down.
- Stopping or slowing and conducting a U-turn right in the middle of the road.
Of course the condition of the roads could also be a contributor. The daily trek across cross island road is like driving the Autocross or an off-road challenge. There are several pot holes that are so large and so deep that you are forced between going completely into on coming traffic or bottoming out your car, even if you crawl along.
Or what about the asphalt on Rt 4 that currently doesn't meet non-skid requirements? How much of that stuff was used on other roads?
I don't think GPD enforcement is an issue. You can't expect the police to be everywhere, all the time. You already see them frequently at some of the higher speed areas, like the stretch of road between Anigua and Naval Station. They can't be there all the time though.
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