Brian Carless, Gleaner Writer

With the ever-increasing number of modern cars on our road network, what will be the future of motoring in Jamaica? Will we have a traffic control centre that monitors our every move as motorists, to inform us of any changes on the road? Will we ever get to the stage of having satellite information beaming to us in our cars or on our sophisticated Blackberry and other mobile devices that we carry around on a day-to-day basis? Right now, we are still listening to traffic updates from the radio station (RJR). Technology is growing and we the motoring public have to keep pace with it as well. Within a few days, we will be going into 2008 and we all know that eight is a new beginning. Most of these cars that are imported into the island from east Asia have DVD satellite navigation screens.

Is there a way we could have a digitised map of Jamaica of even say Kingston so when I get that map on a CD, I could insert it into the satellite navigation player? I could get directions to anywhere I want to go, and with the influx of tourists, that could be a very useful tool. But the car rental companies could look into this, and try to see what they could do. With our busy lives that we lead, vital information is a must.

I am not sure if we are going to reach the stage of having ONSTAR in our cars. Somehow, I think the relevant authorities should be looking into investing in traffic-monitoring devices apart from stoplights and signs, and try to have that data passed on to the motoring public.

pilot project

Maybe the National Works Agency and the mobile telecom giants need to come to the table and discuss some of these issues and start with a pilot project and see where it takes us. The future is now. We are approaching the eighth year in the millennium and the motoring public in America, Europe and Asia are light years ahead of us.

I would like to see a Jamaica where I can get up-to-date traffic in full being sent to me when I want it, wherever I am on the island. Also, if I don't know where to find Lucky Hill and Nuts Field in deep rural St. Mary, I should be able to find them without asking any directions from any of the locals, or fumbling with a road map. This is the vision I have for motoring in Jamaica. Will it become a reality?