Latin America & Caribbean » Jamaica
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Jamaica's flight |
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| 8 years have passed by since the first D4D Propositive Analysis made in 2011.
The problems have not been dramatically worsened. This is due to the low rate of growth of Kingston, which reflects a low economic performance, and to some solutions implemented that have been able to maintain the inefficiency to still acceptable levels. One of these solutions has been the implementation of the metropolitan highway backbone, the T1 National Highway, proposed by the Metro-Matrix analysis in 2011. Congratulations. However, the project has serious planning flaws. It follows the south. Should have followed the north, preventing the invasion of valuable foothill environmental assets. It follows the rail line, once bypassed Central Village and Spanish Town. This mistake will make more difficult to develop the urban centralities necessary along with the rail service. It will be solved in the future but at a higher cost. Finally, little has been done on the urban scale. Downtown Kingston is still discussed as it was 8 years ago. No action is seen. The Commuter train serviced, coupled to the tramway, BRT or MRT from Downtown to New Kingston not even talked about. That will automatically revitalize Oldtown Kingston. At National level the north/south road just built is a consistent decision, but nowhere to be seen a clear policy of national planning integration of investments in the north metropolis, from Montego to Ocho Rios, nor the in the southern Kingston metropolis. The high valuable environmental central spine neither benefits with a propositive vision for sustainable development. Once these issues would be addressed, Jamaica will take its flight. |
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D4D Kingston Propositive Analysis |
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| Kingston is a 1.7 million person regional metropolis, constituting 60% of the country’s population. The linear location of settlements has not yet merged into a continuous urban structure. The historical rail track recently began being reused for commuter service. This has to be coordinated with a metropolitan policy to address housing needs, social facilities provision and economic activity locations in a general framework of urban centralities, environmental protection and long term sustainability. | |
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