TravelTalkOnline Forums Travel and Vacation Forums St. Maarten - St. Martin Grid Lock

Anybody know what caused the traffic grid-lock all the way around the lagoon at 6:30 yesterday evening?

I saw elsewhere a mention of a broken-down truck, not sure if that is what you are referring to or not.

Yes, I'm curious, too. We are staying on Simpson Bay Road, and left for dinner in Porto Cupecoy around 6:30 pm last night. The traffic eastbound was backed up almost to the Hertz office by that time and was starting to back up over the causeway as well, as people tried to bypass the problem in Simpson Bay.

We were also backed up for an hour on our way to Grand Case on Friday around mid-day. Traffic ground to a halt just after the first roundabout on rue de Hollande in Marigot and it just crawled (mostly stopped dead) until we were able to get off at rue du Concorde. From there we were able to bypass it and get to the north roundabout at rue de Spring, where traffic was finally flowing. I have no idea what caused it, but never saw any evidence of police involvement the entire time, nor any attempt to divert traffic to an alternative route.

This is my first visit back in three years. Traffic seems to be becoming a more regular issue on the island. I see very little effort by the police on either the Dutch or French side to help or get involved, unless cruise ship visitors are affected. I don't come to the island to sit in traffic gridlock. I can do that at home. If they want to keep building their visitor numbers, they need to start getting serious about some of their infrastructure issues, including active traffic management.

Welcome to high season.

When we returned from Phillipsburg yesterday mid afternoon the was a blockage just before the roundabout (Cole Bay/ hill to Phippsburg) due to a decent rear end smash. No authorities on scene but traffic was already backed up to the bridge. We were on the good side of that returning to SBR

Edit: returning from Happy Bay/Marigot to the causeway is always an adventure after 3pm...EVERYONE is going towards Cole Bay and zero to the causeway (except us)...

We were on Anguilla yesterday and took the last ferry. We arrived in Marigot at 5:15 and did not get to the Belair until 8:00pm. Horrified! We literally turned off the car and played with local doggies. This is insane! And WTF about the motor bike ppl who bypass everybody with total disregard? Govt! Come on now!

Other than that, it has been an amazing 2 weeks here......problems here? Of course...but it is still an amazing place and the SXM ppl is why we keep returning after 20 plus years of visits! Can't stop. Wont stop!

Sorry, no disrespect intended, but It is not just high season causing this, unless something has changed in the last three years.

We have been coming to the island for over 10 years, and always at exactly the same time (mid January to mid-February). I have never seen so many traffic issues as this year. No problem was ever solved by people just brushing it off by saying things like, "oh, it's just high season", as if that somehow makes it acceptable. It wasn't even a big cruise ship day, so the cruise ships can't be blamed either. No one seems to care or take any responsibility.

Like everything else on the island, the island can ignore the issues that affect visitors at its peril. As much as I love St Maarten, we all have other choices.

I live here 15 years, high season causes many locals to stay home. Yep, there was an accident of sorts. But it doesn't make much difference. The infrastructure needs major overhaul. Another thing govt is ignoring

I heard there was an overturn truck yesterday blocking the road. Really messy up everything.

Traffic? just another day in SXM. Every year it gets busier and busier.

It took me almost 2 hours yesterday to get from Cole Bay to Grand Case - what a mess!

Got the answer...some one touched on this- there was a broken down dump truck broken down in the traffic circle at the bottom of the mountain that had to be removed with a crane.

Yep, that is what I stated.

Not to continue the agony BUT tonight we went to Jordan Village for an early dinner. Left at 545p and got to SBR, maybe 4-5 miles away at 715p. Sat in totally not moving traffic (engine off) for 30 minutes at the causeway roundabout and then diverted over the causeway through Cole Bay which was slow BUT moving. No clue what was going on but NOTHING was moving going towards the bridge.....nothing at all

We have been coming to this Island for maybe 20 years and over the last two weeks we have seen the worse traffic issues EVERYWHERE. No clue what the issue is