Vandalism Worsens the Deteriorated Traffic Signs of Cuban Streets

Vandalism Worsens the Deteriorated Traffic Signs of Cuban Streets /
14ymedio, Orlando Palma
Posted on June 1, 2015

14ymedio, Orlando Palma, Havana, 28 May 2015 – As a result of vandalism
and slackness affecting the deficient signage of roads and streets,
drivers traveling through Cuban streets must mix expertise with a
guessing game.

The lack of these important roadway elements worsens with vandalism, as
stated on Thursday by officials of the National Center of Traffic
Engineering speaking to Juventud Rebelde (Rebel youth) newspaper. In the
first four months of this year, there were 144 acts of vandalism against
road signs, of which 60 occurred in urban areas.

The provinces most affected by predation are Cienfuegos, Villa Clara and
Havana, with effects ranging from the most serious – causing accidents –
to generating misinformation about the locations of sites or their distance.

The lack of explanatory signs especially affects those who have no
experience on the road, such as tourists who rent a car or drivers who
venture into an area for the first time.

Vandalism, however, has many faces, and though none of them is
justifiable, some of them point to the material shortage that the
population encounters. The absence of a market where iron or steel
angles, screws and metal plates can be legally acquired, leads people
needing these materials to ignore ethical considerations or civilized
coexistence.

There are a lot of animal pens, garages for cars or even walls and
informal housing ceilings built with "recovered materials" which
were once traffic signs. That is without counting the most serious
damage, which with similar purpose, has been wreaked on electrical
transmission towers or even on railways.

The problem affecting traffic signs is not a minor issue. The absence of
a legal advertising infrastructure with commercial purposes means ads
for concerts, notices of housing swaps, car sales and many other private
classifieds find their space on a Yield or a No Parking sign. On the
other hand, there is an inadequate policy of installation, replacement,
and maintenance of these important elements by the State.

Translated by Alberto

Source: Vandalism Worsens the Deteriorated Traffic Signs of Cuban
Streets / 14ymedio, Orlando Palma | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/vandalism-worsens-the-deteriorated-traffic-signs-of-cuban-streets-14ymedio-orlando-palma/