Can it do that?

Egay Uy . 

IT is good to note that the Traffic Management Board was finally constituted and convened in order to address the worsening traffic condition in the city.  The reported chairperson, Engr. Avalyn Caharian, is a traffic engineer with ample experience in traffic engineering.

I was able to observe in several meetings that I attended with her around that she knew what she can effectively help the city dramatically improve traffc.  Those meetings were when I was with the traffic office.

Aside from Engr. Caharian’s technical perspective, it may also help if we inject some lay persons’ observations in solving the traffic problem.  From where I sit on my layman’s chair, some suggestions would crop up.  I know other observers also share these suggestions.

Fun runs, for example.  Fun runs should be staged only in roads that do not affect vehicular traffic in major arteries when closed.  Sundays and holidays, during which fun runs are usually held, are no longer as tranquil as before.  Fun runs should therefore be heavily regulated and absolutely disallowed in major thoroughfares.

I drafted a policy on this that would have guided the RTA in endorsing requests for fun runs in or around the city.  In fact, one fun run was staged in Macasandig – not in major thoroufares – because an alternative route was found and agreed upon with the proponent.  Needless to state, that fun run did not obstruct traffic in usually-congested streets.

Another example would be to disallow commercial buildings to use the sidewalk as their parking areas. There are quite many of this around town.  Sidewalks and building set-backs, as required by the National Building Code, are often appropriated by the building owners or occupants as their shops’ extension or as parking areas for customers. Should not be the case.

This leaves the road as the only space where pedestrians stroll, walk, or even jog.  And it only takes an open mind to see that once pedestrian traffic uses any part of the road, vehicular traffic is obstructed.

Still another example would be removing the bad eggs that are now inside the traffic office. Those bad eggs could come from the “job orders,” the casuals, and even the organic permanent employees. If bad eggs abound in the department, then it will remain a weak organization hence will have tremendous difficulty administering the city’s roads and traffic.

As a I have said, a weak organization will not be able solve the traffic problem of the city. The Traffic Management Board can set the directions to which the traffic office should train its sights. It can set policies that should guide the traffic office set medium and long term goals and programs.

But in the end, it will be the traffic office that will do justice to what the TMB crafts. Can it do that?

(Egay Uy is a lawyer who once served as overseer of the Roads and Traffic Administration. He now chairs the City’s Regulatory and Complaint Board, co-chairs with the city mayor the City Price Coordinating Council, and chairs the city’s Joint Inspection Team. He retired as a vice president of Cepalco.)