Easing the traffic woes

The Sinulog celebration does not only bring people and economic benefits, but also result to major traffic problems.

We’d say that our traffic authorities have been working so hard every Sinulog celebration to at least ease our woes, but always they seem to fall short.

We’re happy to know that Mayor Michael Rama has decided not to approve requests to hold events in the parking lots of establishments. If you drive around the city on the Friday and Saturday before the grand parade, you will encounter traffic congestion in areas where there are parties that are being held.

While this is one positive step, we hope that the CITOM in coordination with the police and barangays are also deploying people in areas where the vehicles would take a detour due to the road closures.

We also hope more information dissemination so that the commuters and motorists would know where to go and what to do.

The problem of traffic congestion is caused by too many people in one area and the lack of control on the push carts and other stuff that are already on the roads and not on the areas designated by the authorities.

Festivals are good for the economy, but we must also make sure to keep on reminding people that we can make such better if they follow the rules.

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We received a message through Facebook from a reader. He asked to remain anonymous, but here is his message about the roads in Mandaue:

Hi Nimrod. Happy New Year!!! In addition to your last column about the potholes and kids begging on the intersections, kindly add the potholes and flooding at A.S. Fortuna St. (Mandaue side), the corner of H. Cortes and A.S. Fortuna even if there is no rain, that portion of H. Cortes is still wet sayang naman ang tubig. As for the potholes, it’s multiplying on A.S. Fortuna St.

Sinulog is just around the corner and many pass through that road going to and from Cebu City. There are lots of big business establishments on that road, I wonder if they have not noticed these potholes as well. As for the kids begging on the road there are so many of them on that intersection where you see Total gas station. I’ve sent a FB message to Sec. Dinky Soliman already but no reply. Hope media can get the attention of the authorities concerned.

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We also got this email from Jesson Morata, which we believe is a legitimate concern. We get irritated at the spiel of the gasoline attendants about the safety precautions and everything else, but here’s something that should be addressed:

I would like to pose my query to the managers and supervisors of gasoline stations here in Cebu. Last weekend, I was gassing up in one of the gasoline stations in the North Reclamation Area, near a grocery store. What surprised me most was what one of the gasoline attendants was doing. I was astounded because the gasoline attendant was very busy using his cellular phone, texting. I asked myself whether that gasoline attendant knows how to read or identify the sign and reminder posted “Please turn off your cell phones” in their gasoline station. It’s been a practice of mine to always turn off my cell phone when I was up, for precautionary measures. What the gasoline attendant did posed a risk not only to me, himself but also to several people nearby and meters away. I think gasoline station supervisors and managers should strictly inform or educate their attendants regarding this safety measure. But in fairness to other gasoline stations, they are strictly enforcing this measure because their attendants would even remind motorists who would line up to gas up. With what I observed the last weekend, I think its but time to remind them of this, before a catastrophe would happen.

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For your comments, complaints and suggestions please feel free to contact us at 2531276 or 2538613 local 237.

You can also send email to [email protected].