🚦 Traffic Congestion on a Small Island: Who’s Really to Blame?

 

Let’s stop whispering about it.

Let’s stop pretending it’s just “growth” or “development.”

On a small island, traffic congestion is not an accident. It is a decision.

And the uncomfortable question is this:

Who is really to blame?

Is it the government that keeps approving entry for more car dealerships?
Is it the aggressive push toward electric vehicle adoption without real infrastructure planning?
Or is it the people who keep buying the vehicles?

The honest answer?
It’s both. But not equally.

The Island Is Small. That’s Not a Secret.

A small island has:

• Limited road space
• Limited expansion capacity
• Limited parking
• Limited land

This is not new information.
This is geography.

So when leadership continues to approve more vehicle imports, more dealerships, more incentives to purchase cars, especially under the banner of modernization or “green transition”,  we have to ask:

Where is the long-term planning?

If so much greed were not mixed up in the decision-making, it would have been obvious that a small island cannot physically handle an endless increase in vehicles.

Yet here we are.

Gridlock.
Frustration.
Lost productivity.
Road rage.
Pollution, even with EVs, is still a concern because congestion itself is the primary issue.

The EV Agenda Without Infrastructure

Let’s be clear, electric vehicles in themselves are not the villain.

But pushing an EV agenda without:

• Expanding road networks
• Improving public transportation
• Creating park-and-ride systems
• Designing urban density intelligently

… is like repainting a sinking boat and calling it progress.

If you flood a small island with electric cars but do nothing about traffic flow, road capacity, or public transit alternatives, you haven’t solved congestion.

You’ve electrified it.

Hmmm! The People Getting Played Over and Over Again.

Let’s say it plainly:

Hmmm! The people are getting played over and over again.

People are encouraged to buy.
Incentivized to finance.
Sold the dream of convenience.
Sold the illusion of independence.

Meanwhile:

• Car dealerships profit.
• Import taxes generate revenue.
• Banks collect interest.
• Fuel companies adjust.
• Charging networks expand.

But who sits in traffic?

The people.

Who burns hours every week stuck on narrow roads?

The people.

Who absorbs the stress, the cost, the wear and tear?

The people.

Where Is the COMMON SENSE?

Where is the COMMON SENSE that is supposed to be operating in people who lead an island or nation?

How do you keep increasing vehicle volume in a space that cannot expand proportionally?

Will the cart always be placed before the donkey in everything?

Because that’s what it looks like.

Policies have been introduced before:

• Transport reform
• National traffic redesign
• Mass transit modernization
• Urban zoning reform

It feels like benefits are being counted, but disadvantages are being ignored.

Stop Counting the Benefits. Start Studying the Disadvantages.

Take greed out of the equation.

When you’re putting plans on the table, remove:

• Revenue projections
• Import taxes
• Political optics
• Short-term economic boosts

And ask:

• What happens in five years?
• What happens when vehicle ownership doubles?
• What happens when emergency vehicles can’t move freely?
• What happens when productivity drops because everyone is stuck on the road?

Maybe then the disadvantages would be visible.

Maybe then the conversation would change.

But Let’s Not Pretend the People Are Innocent

The people are not powerless.

Consumers keep buying vehicles.
Families own multiple cars.
Convenience is chosen over carpooling.
Public transport is often avoided.

So yes, the people play a role.

But here’s the key difference:

The government sets the gate.
The government controls policy.
The government approves imports.
The government shapes incentives.
The government pushes agendas.

The people respond to the environment created for them.

When dealerships are allowed entry,
When EVs are promoted aggressively,
When there is no serious investment in mass transit,
When urban planning is reactive instead of visionary,

Then congestion becomes inevitable.

So Who Is Really Responsible?

The traffic congestion everywhere is not just caused by people buying vehicles.

It is caused by:

• A system that encourages purchase without structural readiness.
• Leadership that measures revenue before sustainability.
• A policy that looks impressive on paper but collapses in real life.

The government is to blame as much as the people, and arguably more, because they design the playing field.

And right now, the field is overcrowded.

When Will the People Wake Up?

When will people ask:

• Why are we importing more vehicles than our roads can carry?
• Why are we not investing heavily in efficient, reliable public transport?
• Why is congestion worsening every year while approvals continue?
• Who benefits from this model?

Conscious awakening is not just spiritual.

It is civic.

It is questioning.
It is observing patterns.
It is recognizing when something doesn’t add up.

A small island cannot function like a continent.

Growth without wisdom becomes chaos.

And if greed remains in the decision-making room, the island will keep paying the price, in time, in stress, in frustration, and in lost opportunity.

The roads are showing us the truth.

The only question left is:

Are we willing to see it?

🚦 Now There’s “National Consultation”? After the Damage?

So now there needs to be a “national consultation” about unsustainable vehicle growth?

Now?

After the island roads are already overwhelmed?
After dealerships have multiplied?
After incentives pushed more people into purchasing vehicles.
After the EV agenda accelerated imports instead of slowing congestion?

When exactly did the government realize that there needed to be action on unsustainable vehicle growth?

Because this didn’t happen overnight.

Shouldn’t That Have Been Priority One?

Let’s think clearly.

Before:

• Approving more car dealerships
• Offering aggressive import incentives
• Rolling out EV encouragement campaigns
• Expanding vehicle financing access

Shouldn’t traffic impact assessments have been priority one?

Shouldn’t infrastructure readiness have come first?

Shouldn’t a national transportation strategy have been fully built out before inviting more vehicles onto roads that were already strained?

Instead, it feels like decisions were made — and now consultations are being held to clean up the consequences.

That is backward planning.

That is placing the cart before the donkey.

The Pattern Is Clear

1. Open the gates.
2. Increase vehicle volume.
3. Watch congestion rise.
4. Announce consultation.
5. Form committees.
6. Study what was predictable from the start.

If so, much greed was not mixed up in the decision-making, the obvious would have been acknowledged early:

A small island has physical limits.

You cannot expand roads endlessly.
You cannot duplicate land.
You cannot import growth without importing pressure.

Yet the approvals continued.

Why Now?

Why does national consultation have to begin after congestion has reached visible crisis levels?

Why wasn’t sustainable transport reform the foundation before expanding dealerships?

Why wasn’t mass transit modernization aggressively funded first?

Why wasn’t a cap or phased vehicle import strategy discussed publicly before acceleration?

Because consultation after implementation is damage control.

Consultation before implementation is leadership.

Unsustainable Vehicle Growth Was Predictable

This is not hindsight.

Any planner, economist, environmental analyst, or ordinary citizen with common sense could see the trajectory:

More dealerships

• Easier financing
• EV transition marketing
• Cultural dependence on private cars
  = Road saturation

This is math.

So, when the government now says action must be taken on unsustainable vehicle growth, the real question is:

Why was sustainability not the first filter applied?

Shared Responsibility — But Not Equal Power

Yes, people are buying vehicles.

Yes, consumer demand exists.

But the government sets:

• Import policies
• Licensing approvals
• Incentive structures
• National transport vision

When the gate is open wide and incentives are strong, consumption increases.

The people are responding to a framework created for them.

Which brings us back to the truth:

The people are being played, over and over again.

They are encouraged to participate in a system that later blames them for the system’s visible strain.

Conscious Awakening Means Civic Clarity

This is bigger than traffic.

It’s about how decisions are made.

It’s about whether leadership:

• Plans long-term or reacts short-term
• Studies the disadvantages or only counts the benefits
• Prioritizes sustainability or revenue

Stop looking only at benefits.
Start studying the disadvantages.

Take greed out of the equation when putting plans on the table.

Because when greed clouds planning, consequences multiply quietly, until they can no longer be ignored.

The Real Wake-Up Call

National consultation is not a bad thing.

But it should not be a reaction to predictable overload.

It should be the starting point before overwhelming the island with:

• Car dealerships
• Incentive-driven vehicle imports
• EV policies without a congestion strategy

The island didn’t suddenly shrink.

The roads didn’t suddenly narrow.

The growth was allowed.

The question now is not just how to fix congestion.

The question is:

Will future decisions finally put sustainability before revenue?

Or will consultation become another cycle in a pattern that repeats?

The roads are already speaking.

Are we finally listening?