Ruffy Magbanua
FROM Bugo, Cagayan de Oro to as far as Opol in Misamis Oriental, heavy traffic at any given time of the day can be seen and felt as if you are on Edsa.
This worsening traffic problem is now a daily occurrence, thanks but no thanks to unholistic approach to managing the city’s burgeoning traffic, which, if left unchecked, this regional hub, will eventually change its moniker from the City of Golden Friendship to the City of Golden Traffic.
While the city has a traffic code to follow, the problem lies with the absence of a comprehensive traffic management master plan. This was openly admitted by no less than the city’s RTA head Nonito Oclarit.
With billions of pesos in income, it is but a disgrace that the city’s escalating traffic problem has been overshadowed by so much political grandstanding in the city council, forgetting that as legislators, they owe the taxpayers good and effective governance, including the delivery of basic services--in this particular case, law and order in the city’s thoroughfares.
While adding more traffic enforcers in the streets would somehow put an ease, this would not solve the problem.
Sadly, the city council, for lack of political will perhaps, has been on shopping spree on what exactly the right thing to do about finding solutions on the city’s traffic woes.
The time has come for the creation of a Traffic Management Council (TMC), the composition of which should come from multisectoral representations.
As taxpayers, we can’t simply sit on bleachers watching the city’s traffic going to the dogs. The proposed TMC would serve as policy maker, providing guidance and the needed recommendations/solutions to ease the city’s worsening traffic.
Further, such a traffic management plan, a measure badly needed by RTA to administer the right traffic menu, would serve as the “Bible” of traffic enforcers for them to deliver the right applications in running the city’s toughest job--traffic law enforcement.
No amount of road expansion or improvements in road network could provide a sigh of relief if the city’s designated traffic enforcers, in this case the RTA, would not be able to get hold of the needed guidance as provided for by the master plan.
A recent study on the city’s traffic has been concluded, and it highly recommends that traffic management scheme be considered in finding the right solutions.
For example, this study has come up with initial evaluations of the city’s traffic situation that needs to be seriously considered. This proposition leads to the creation of a pro-active traffic roadmap that will guide the city’s transport system in the next five to 10 years.
Amid the robust investment climate, the city government should be able to outsmart the city’s unprecedented economic growth in the five years and beyond.
Any delay in crafting a comprehensive traffic roadmap of the city could result to endless, annoying traffic nightmares. Sigh.
E-mail: ruffy44_ph2000@yahoo.com
