Traffic chaos

Herbie Gomez

IT’S about time that the Roads and Traffic Administration (RTA) started stepping up its operations outside the city proper. By “city proper,” I mean the Divisoria area where the RTA focused much of its resources on in the last three years.

I can appreciate the change in the attitude of motorists and pedestrians in Divisoria. There, people seem a bit more conscious of the rules (whether they like the rules or not), and I guess that RTA can be credited for making that happen. If only we can have that kind of discipline near the string of malls on CM Recto Ave., on the highway from Bulua, Kauswagan, Licoan, Agora area in Lapasan, Gusa, all the way to Bugo, maybe, the vehicular traffic flow in the city would significantly improve.

As it is now, I don’t see the RTA beyond the Agora junction at daytime, and by sunset, it seems motorists caught in the rush-hour traffic build-up are left on their own.

My drive from the office up to CM Recto-Corrales was a breeze late Monday afternoon. But it was not the case for motorists bound towards Gusa. I guess most of the vehicles got stuck at the “Galaxy” junction again, judging from the vehicular queue that stretched towards the Agora junction. I saw no traffic law enforcer helping motorists headed towards the opposite direction. That kind of traffic is the driver’s worst nightmare.

The same is true with the Bulua bottleneck, and JR Borja-Extension–no RTA after sunset when traffic law enforcers are needed the most.

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The coastal road from Bayabas to Igpit in Opol town has eased the traffic a bit. But the Kauswagan-Bonbon-Bayabas junction is clearly a bottleneck, defeating the purpose of the new road. This becomes evident during the rush hours. Given that the seat of the RTA leadership is just a stone’s throw from this traffic bottleneck, the situation is ironical, unacceptable, and should be seen as an insult to those given the task of managing the flow of vehicular traffic in the city. If you can’t fix a traffic problem nearby, chances are, you can’t handle the situation in other places.

Aggravating the problem is the “freestyle” driving near the foot of the Puntod-Kauswagan bridge. The traffic lamps nearby are not helping–it seems to be contributing to the vehicular congestion in the area.

The RTA would likely get the budget that it wants with a new city council taking over next month. By then, Cagayanons are expecting RTA to fix what needs to be fixed, and the last thing motorists would want to hear are excuses.

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I have been pointing out since the ’90s what I think is the need to regulate trucking hours in the city. If there is already a rule on this, then RTA should seriously consider strictly imposing it. I mean, where is the common sense in allowing hordes of monster trucks towing trailers on CM Recto Ave., Agora, Puntod, and Kauswagan during rush hours? Why can’t the truckers hit the road before or after rush hours?

At the height of a traffic build-up during a rush hour in Puntod on Monday, a truck with a trailer made the world stop as its driver “entertained” everyone on all lanes with his skill of making the monster enter a container yard backwards via a narrow path. Tell me, where is common sense and road courtesy in that?

Please regulate.

Pastilan.