2014-12-31

Less stress, more happiness

One of my personal goals for 2015 is to conquer stress. Better health and more productive relationships will result from a more active and less stressful lifestyle. I've been able to achieve a little bit of this during my vacation in Barbados, and hopefully it'll carry over into the New Year.

Peace and prosperity to you all.

2014-12-30

He who knows what's best for the opponent

A bit funny, perhaps, to see how an article suggesting the PLP reform or disband, generates all manner of feedback from the usual pro-OBA contributors.

What's even funnier is the likelihood that the contributors would believe that PLP members and higher-ups will agree or take to heart any of the suggestions.

Just another week of political prognostication in Bermuda, I suppose. Every time a poll is released, people jump to conclusions or assumptions of how the voting public views Party A vs Party B.

2014-12-20

Only a matter of time until the next road fatality

Waiting in line at the traffic lights at the junction of Church and Par-la-ville.  Light turns green, car in front gets ready to go, then zoom, grey hatchback runs through their red light.

People here just don't care, because they know there's little risk of them getting into trouble. Other motorists and pedestrians have to take evasive action. Might is right. There may be cameras at the junction (who knows?) but there's no policy or presence for these scenarios.

Meanwhile, Minister of Transport pledged to release new campaigns a few months ago. Whatever, Min. Trans. The 'Slow Down' campaign? Did that even get under way?

Road users don't care, and the powers that be don't care.

And meanwhile, we'll continue to lose people, families will get the dreaded phone calls and their lives forever negatively impacted. Carry on, folks.

2014-12-15

Installing new pedestrian crossings

In the wake of the unfortunate death of Peter Woolcock, the Corporation of Hamilton speedily acted to move the pedestrian crossing away from the roundabout, in the efforts of pedestrian safety.

While it does appear to provide a safer viewing line for motorists and pedestrians alike, I feel they could have done more - not to say that they aren't already planning to do so in the near future.

For one, there's no signage at either the new crossing or the old, to indicate the presence of a crossing. Yes, many people here ignore signage anyway, but it would be good to have appropriate signage indicating a crosswalk is present, particularly when visibility is low (nighttime or foul weather conditions).

I also think that any new crossing should be well illuminated, via reflectors on the crossing or otherwise, again for similar reasons.

Finally, this wouldn't be a bad location for a raised crossing to further encourage motorists to approach slowly, particularly those who are coming off the roundabout and are otherwise accelerating from the junction.

Primarily the signage should be in place. It's ludicrous that we now have an overabundance of signs for the parking regulations, yet fewer and fewer signs for road traffic/safety purposes. We'll see how it all turns out.

2014-12-02

Another other Bermuda online news site!

They're coming thick and fast, to use some Bajan lingo. Bermuda Real is the newest addition to the Bermuda news/content online offerings.

This site has a slightly different delivery method to the current crop of sites; video delivery seems to be the preferred method here, which provides a potentially exciting way to go. I imagine there will be an audience for this, primarily those who eschew traditional print/literary methods. Key will be distinguishing themselves and getting early quick promotion.

Again, with a limited population and uncertain overseas appeal, is there room in the landscape for another news media source? I don't know, but considering the persons behind each of the recent ventures (in this case, well known journalist Ceola Wilson), I wouldn't bet against them one single bit.