I sent this to the Daily Herald almost three weeks ago. Not sure why they never published it -- maybe too long, "not invented here," whatever -- no response. It does offer suggestions for the perennial traffic mess in Simpson Bay.

Here it is:

Is This How We Want to Greet Tourists?

As a “retiree,” for the last few years I’ve spent winters here in SXM, escaping brutal Massachusetts winter weather. At home in Massachusetts, I’ve spent many hours chairing appointed committees charged with overseeing and improving various elements of town government. It’s in that spirit of helpfulness that I submit a few random ideas here to help make SXM work better for residents and visitors.

At 3pm Monday afternoon, a bus broke down on “the hill.” I left Beacon Hill at 4:45 to get to an event in the Belair area at 6 pm. At 5:20, I called “ERB” at Island92 radio to ask why the traffic was unusually bad. He told me about the bus, and it quickly became obvious that getting to the Belair area by 6:00 pm was beyond hopeless. I returned to the place where I’m staying to write this letter…

Remember a few weeks ago when a cement truck overturned near the roundabout at SMMC? It created a historic traffic apocalypse that had traffic stopped dead all the way back to Cupecoy Beach. At home in high traffic areas, tow trucks with two-way radios are stationed so they can respond at once to incidents that threaten the smooth flow of traffic. Accidents on or near the hill or southbound toward PBurg are a serious public safety issue since they can and do hinder the ability of emergency vehicles to get where they need to go in a hurry. They’re also a serious problem for the country’s single-pillar tourism economy: for years, tourists who have turned away from SXM have cited its road network, congestion, and poor road maintenance as reasons for not returning to the island.

I have several suggestions related to helping move traffic through Simpson Bay toward Philipsburg every afternoon and toward other tourist-related issues:

The first is simply placing a police radio-equipped tow truck capable of hauling away large vehicles at the scenic overlook on the hill weekdays from 2:30pm to 7:30pm. Rapid removal of obstacles can be cheap and effective. This can be done in a matter of days at a cost that is “in the noise” and can help reduce the biggest tie-ups. Reduced tie-ups translate into more returning tourists: evidence of that has been on my SXM Facebook site in the past, facebook.com/groups/mysxm.

Second, seriously examine Eric Boyer’s suggestion of a few years ago, published here, to convert key roads around the lagoon to one way. My two cents: at the bottom of the hill from PBurg, all traffic must turn right onto the Union Road, which would become a one-way street all the way to the roundabout at the Causeway. Traffic across the causeway would be one-way East to West, toward the Airport. Traffic on Airport Road from the roundabout southward all the way to Welfare Road and the Hill would be southbound only. This would create one-way traffic around the lagoon and should greatly speed traffic movement.

Third, longer term, SXM needs to address its bus problem. Having seemingly hundreds of buses across the island – all of them often stopping and starting in the middle of the road, snarling traffic – aggravates congestion rather than alleviating it. They need to be replaced by larger buses, perhaps powered by inexpensive natural gas rather than highly polluting diesel, which will reduce the clutter of endless minibuses and help people get where they want to go.

Fourth, having the Simpson Bay drawbridge open and close at 5pm is, in my humble opinion, an ingenious way to AGGRAVATE traffic jams throughout Simpson Bay and beyond. Do it an hour later. If extra lighting is needed to ensure safety, fine. Again, reduced tie-ups translate into more returning tourists.

Fifth, both GEBE and VROMI need to rev up the way they do their jobs regarding road maintenance and street lighting / traffic signal service. It’s a public safety issue, but it also relates to the quality of the experience tourists have when visiting the island. Give them a great experience and they’ll be back; give them an experience they perceive as “They don’t care about tourists,” and they’ll go elsewhere – St. Kitts (which is working like crazy to attract tourists and keep them) and Aruba (which spends more than 10 times what SXM does to attract tourists, gets plenty of them, and has far greater tourism revenue from them, I’m sure, than does SXM). Perception is reality – we must give tourists a great perception so they come again and encourage others to come.

GEBE needs to fix non-functioning street lights within 24 hours and have crews doing just that. It is a government-owned company and the government MUST exert whatever pressure is necessary to force GEBE to do its job. GEBE has other long festering issues that have never been properly addressed and the new government needs to body slam them into doing their job. Perception is reality. They have improved -- but not enough.

VROMI does many things but the “public works” aspect of its work is inadequate. Cavernous potholes like the one in Maho on Beacon Hill Road at the end of the airport runway and like the “Grand Canyon” pothole near Sale & Pepe need to be fixed. Someone put beach sand into the one at Maho, and VROMI put a metal plate over the one near Sale & Pepe. It was quickly dislodged, worsening the situation for days until it was repositioned. VROMI needs the capability of fixing such things itself, QUICKLY, rather than wasting time going through contortions to get a private contractor and wasting space in the Daily Herald with press releases bragging that it will soon fix potholes. That’s part of their job -- not something that merits a press release or its publication. Both of these potholes remain unfixed.

Sixth, months ago (two years after Irma) another government press release said that the sunken boats in the Lagoon were to be removed, starting quickly. There is no visible evidence of any of that; masts stick out of the water everywhere nearly 2.5 years after Irma – not a good thing.

Seventh and last, there is a strong odor of raw sewage on Airport Road at the 90% turn near Rusty Rocket and the sunken Pink Iguana wreck. The stench has been there for well over a year. Is this how we want to greet tourists?

Jeff Berger, travel writer
Massachusetts