If you live in Panama, have you noticed how busy David Panama is getting recently?  Three years ago, it seemed that the streets of David were hardly occupied.  The first street light was installed in David when I arrived around March 2007.  That was big news.  But today, there are at least two lights that I know of, and there probably should be more.  The traffic situation along the Pan American highway is backed up and hazardous, especially during rush hours.

David has become a city.  Even three years ago, it was like a big agricultural town but no longer. 

From David to Panama City there are several sections which force drivers to slow right down to 40 km/hr.  This is ludicrous for a highway...but this is Panama. 

So, what solution could be put into place in David to free up that congestion and keep traffic moving?   I have to relate this to the solution I saw implemented on the tiny island of St. Maarten (Dutch side).

In St. Maarten, a little more than three three years ago, traffic from the new airport to almost anywhere on the island, had become a serious issue.  When there were several flights arriving, traffic was so bad that a trip to Philipsburg sometimes took over two hours when it could and should have been less than 20 minutes.   I remember giving up the effort to get from Point A to Point B, on many occasions.  The island had not planned for such drastic increases in tourist or visitor population. Even the utility companies started to experience outages because they could not handle overloads, etc.  Bad planning. 

A few months ago, I visited the island and was pleasantly surprised to see improvements.  What was their  solution to the traffic problem?  Roundabouts!   Several roundabouts had been constructed where there used to be  intersections.  The traffic flowed, no holdups...I was amazed. 

I  was so impressed that I think this could also work in David.  Where there are so many left turns across the highway, roundabouts should be put into place to avoid deathly accidents.  At the intersections to Boquete and Super Baru, Pricemart, Airport turnoff, Hospital Chiriqui turnoff, etc. etc.  Something will need to be done soon and I hope it won’t take a major traffic accident before the problem is addressed.  Growth takes planning!