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In Nicosia, the capital of Cyprus, until earlier this year, the General Hospital was inadequate, in ex-colonial buildings. A new super-duper hospital was built in the outskirts after 10 years of planning idiocies, inadequate consultation with medical staff etc. and it opened a few months ago. However, it had an inadequate number of parking slots. A new dual-carriageway was built alongside it, but cars blocked one of the lanes, causing a certain amount of difficulty for ambulances.
Amid great expectations, a new super-mall (Carrefour, Debenhams and ~50 other shops) and an Ikea were being built just opposite the new hospital. Ikea was scheduled to open on 6 September and the Mall on 26 September. There were ~600 parking slots for Ikea and 1500 for the mall, which were deemed adequate.
End of August, someone raised the question about how new traffic to the mall and Ikea would affect the hospital. Panic!!!! Wait and see!. 6 September absolute gridlock. As it happened, I was given an appointment for that day at a place a couple of km from the hospital and not going anywhere near the hospital, but I was 2 h late! Ambulances took hours to go out and return; fortunately, no one died as a result. Police unable to cope. The following day, the police managed to re-organise things and reduce delays, but still not eliminate things. Then came Saturday: affluence of visitors to the hospital and Ikea, gridlock again. After that, things calmed down a little, except on Saturdays.
Questions were asked how it was possible for this state of affairs to happen and it appeared that all the different authorities were blaming the others. Then it became a political issue. Suddenly, someone asked what would happen on the 26th with all the hospital, Ikea and mall traffic on the road. Panic stations. Let's ensure that ambulances could move! A secondary road was half closed to leave space for ambulances and an emergency cross-roads was built across a motorway (freeway), crossing the central reservation! This was so dangerous that policemen were stationed so that they could stop the traffic when they heard an ambulance coming, cutting across 2 lanes of motorway traffic (officially 80 km/h but often 100 km/h in reality) in each direction!
Then came the big day: the mall opened. OUCH! Gridlock plus, especially as the official opening was at 1730 h, at the peak of rush hour!
A few days ago, the President of the Republic intervened and asked for a reckoning. Parliament got involved. Blame goes left, right and centre, like a ping-pong ball. Committees have been set up to investigate. The 3 major political parties, AKEL, DISY and DIKO, are blaming each other and everyone else. In the meanwhile, traffic chaos continues.
Today's newspaper
Ooops! Sorry if this sounds as if it were written by The Pit
Amid great expectations, a new super-mall (Carrefour, Debenhams and ~50 other shops) and an Ikea were being built just opposite the new hospital. Ikea was scheduled to open on 6 September and the Mall on 26 September. There were ~600 parking slots for Ikea and 1500 for the mall, which were deemed adequate.
End of August, someone raised the question about how new traffic to the mall and Ikea would affect the hospital. Panic!!!! Wait and see!. 6 September absolute gridlock. As it happened, I was given an appointment for that day at a place a couple of km from the hospital and not going anywhere near the hospital, but I was 2 h late! Ambulances took hours to go out and return; fortunately, no one died as a result. Police unable to cope. The following day, the police managed to re-organise things and reduce delays, but still not eliminate things. Then came Saturday: affluence of visitors to the hospital and Ikea, gridlock again. After that, things calmed down a little, except on Saturdays.
Questions were asked how it was possible for this state of affairs to happen and it appeared that all the different authorities were blaming the others. Then it became a political issue. Suddenly, someone asked what would happen on the 26th with all the hospital, Ikea and mall traffic on the road. Panic stations. Let's ensure that ambulances could move! A secondary road was half closed to leave space for ambulances and an emergency cross-roads was built across a motorway (freeway), crossing the central reservation! This was so dangerous that policemen were stationed so that they could stop the traffic when they heard an ambulance coming, cutting across 2 lanes of motorway traffic (officially 80 km/h but often 100 km/h in reality) in each direction!
Then came the big day: the mall opened. OUCH! Gridlock plus, especially as the official opening was at 1730 h, at the peak of rush hour!
A few days ago, the President of the Republic intervened and asked for a reckoning. Parliament got involved. Blame goes left, right and centre, like a ping-pong ball. Committees have been set up to investigate. The 3 major political parties, AKEL, DISY and DIKO, are blaming each other and everyone else. In the meanwhile, traffic chaos continues.
Today's newspaper
Ooops! Sorry if this sounds as if it were written by The Pit
. Result: absolute gridlock at the new crossroad at one side of the city.
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