The photo of an interminable traffic jam appears on the front page of today?s El Siglo above the caption, ?Transit on 27th of February Avenue in Disarray due to Inoperative Traffic Lights.? The city?s longest East-West thoroughfare, named for the country?s date of independence, is reported to have few functioning traffic lights. Certain stretches of the avenue, which afford parallel rapid lanes through underpasses, keep traffic flowing continuously. Inevitably, however, motorists must return to the stretches where new one-way street designations have reduced turn-off possibilities, and where traffic lights are out of order or, possibly, even if the lights are functional, one of Santo Domingo?s frequent blackouts has disabled them. Traffic control officers of the Metropolitan Transit Authority, can often be found directing vehicular movements, but not during their rest breaks and lunch breaks. Despite the mega-projects completed in recent years to facilitate movement, traversing this major artery or crossing it remains a time-consuming ordeal for hundreds of thousands of motorists twice daily.
