THERE is marked improvement in the flow of Honiara’s traffic.

This follows last week’s opening of the three bus bays; one in front of the central market, one near the Hyundai Mall and another opposite the South Sea Evangelical Church area, and an underpass in front of the ITA Hardware building.

The underpass allows pedestrians to cross from one side of the street to the other safely and also without hindrance to the traffic.

And, the bus bays allow buses to drop and collect passengers without impeding traffic flow.

This portion of the road, from the old G-province area to the Town Council area, had been identified as the main point of traffic hold-up with a domino-effect on the rest of Honiara’s traffic, causing long queues and much headache for drivers and commuters.

The improvements to the road structure were opened on Tuesday this week by the Acting Mayor of Honiara Cr Charles Aiwosuga, who accepted the keys from the Kitano Construction company.

With the road upgrades, commuters and drivers have taken to social media to express their delight in reaching their destinations on time and in a much lesser timeframe compared to just few days back.

One Facebook commentator wrote that it usually takes him on average 40 minutes if he hits the traffic early, and an hour if late, to get to work. This is from Tandai to Panatina.

However, on Wednesday morning, being in his usual 8am early routine, he was shocked to find himself cruising through Honiara’s CBD and reaching office in only 15 minutes.

Another FB commentator shares his amazement at having reached office nearly an hour earlier than usual and not knowing what to do with his newly found free time.

He agrees that the improvement to the traffic will definitely help a lot of ministries and offices increase their productivity.

However, some social media comments have depicted several areas which would need authorities to work on to enhance the effectiveness of the road upgrades.

“Some buses continue to remain in the bus bays longer than the required 2 minutes, some staying for as long as 5 minutes, creating a line of buses waiting to go into the bus bays.

“This undermines the newly opened bus bays and the improvement which they bring to the Honiara traffic,” one FB commentator shares.

The joy in the improvement to Honiara’s traffic may be short lived if the above concern falls on deaf ears and insensitive bus drivers are allowed to carry on with their inconsiderate behaviour.

A concerned Honiara man says, “Honiara City Council, the police and the Ministry of Infrastructure Development should take note of this concern and address it immediately. Otherwise, it will kill the whole purpose of having these road improvements.”

Meanwhile, bus drivers are urged to adhere to the bus bays’ 2-minute rule and pedestrians to use the underpass, so as not to put their lives at risk and also disturb traffic flow.