Dear Editor,

Policing on the cheap is a delusional exercise. Our system of highway police, traffic courts, and transport authority clearly are not sufficiently resourced to be really effective. The continuing chaos on our roads is sufficient evidence of this. An example is the Road Traffic Act (RTA). It is rapidly falling victim to the same malaise that afflicted its predecessor – poor enforcement.

Laws do not enforce themselves. Resources have to be dedicated to that cause, and we’re failing in that regard. I feel it for the Government, who has to divide limited resources between competing demands, and for the police, who get the heat for our Wild West road situation.

The current state of lawlessness in the country is not an overnight occurrence. It has become almost a cultural characteristic because of years of poor detection and enforcement. The previous RTA had its weaknesses. So does the current one, but the thread that runs through them both and threatens to doom the present one as it did the previous one is the lack of enforcement.

Examples of what results from policing on the cheap are not hard to find. Motorcycle men still run red lights with impunity. Taxi men still make three lanes where there should be two and obstruct intersections by using filter lanes to get to the head of the line. They’re not hiding and doing these things. They’re doing them at major intersections in broad daylight. In all this, there is no discernible increase in police presence or action. We appear to be expecting the new RTA to enforce itself.

Having spent years getting the new RTA in place, we’re now at the proverbial turning point. Let’s not turn back.

Michael Nicholson

kovsky54@yahoo.com