The worsening traffic in Metro Manila is not totally unexpected as the existing LRT and MRT have been built precisely in anticipation of the bigger volume of passengers that have to be moved from one location to another location.
The C5 circumferential road and the widening of other roads were based on a projected volume of vehicles. The experiences of other cities like Bangkok and New Delhi, and some cities in China were there to see and learn. While it can be argued that the sudden and high economic growth of the Philippine economy, which allowed more people to afford to buy motorcycles and cars are partly responsible for the large addition of vehicles in Metro Manila roads, the bigger culprit is really the slow implementation of the needed infrastructures for traffic management. The additional roads routes, the additional train cars and maintenance of the MRT and LRT have been very slow in coming. The best efforts of Sec. Rogelio Singson in fast-tracking road building and repairs, and drainage improvements are five-years behind.
I have always maintained that the government takes twice as long and twice the cost to build anything, because of the bureaucracy and the procedures involved. And this is the reason why everybody is pushing for public-private partnerships on projects.
I made the Metro Manila traffic problem as an introduction, because if we do not learn its lessons, Cebu, Davao and other secondary cities will fall into the same situation. After two (2) years as chairman of CITOM or CCTO, the board of this policy and planning body for Cebu City traffic management is more than aware of the traffic problems of the city. It is too many people moving from one place to another, and the consequent too many vehicles in the limited road network. We have gone over the 25 year old McCluts study, re-read the recommendations of the traffic summits, and conducted our own CITOM or CCTO studies. The solutions are: mass transport, which the seven-year delayed Bus Rapid Transit is part, and a subway system; road additions and widening; unclogging of the roads and streets of obstructions; and traffic enforcement. The CCTO Board have passed the necessary resolutions or recommendations, worked with, and made representations to DPWH, City Engineering, the Office of the Building Official, and other government implementing agencies, but implementation of these projects have been slow, and will put Cebu in the same situation as Metro Manila in the coming years. Even if we do not have the authority to prod the winning contractors to fast track their projects, we sit down with them to minimize traffic disruptions, and we assign our people to facilitate projects including the BRT. Like in Metro Manila, the government agencies assigned to implement these projects just have to move faster and finish the projects earlier, if we have to prevent a traffic situation nearing crisis proportions in Cebu City.
It is the responsibility of CCTO, Land Transportation Office, and the Philippine National Police to implement traffic laws and issue citation tickets, temporary operators permits to apprehend violators. We are now in close coordination with each other, and LTO is in the process of allowing more of the police and the CCTO enforcers to confiscate licenses and issue TOPs. This will help in improving enforcement as drivers are more obedient when their licenses are confiscated. CCTO together with the OBO, PROBE, and City Engineering are also working on removing all road encroachments by business establishments and informal settlers in all city roads and streets, and in enforcing the easement rules on all structures. It seems that quite a number of buildings in the city are encroaching or not complying with the required easement, and are even using the road as their parking spaces.
The F.Ramos Extension road which should go all the way to Escario St., and be a parallel road to J. Osmeña St. is an example of a road that is blocked by structures and should be cleared to ease traffic. The practice of back-out parking from building establishments in major roads has also been prohibited by CCTO since time immemorial as it stops traffic flow every time a vehicle backs out, but this has been tolerated by OBO in their approvals, so we now have to correct these infractions. I am also amazed that some buildings or residences have gates that are only one meter from the road, that when the maid or the driver has to open the gate the whole vehicle stops all traffic until the gate is open and the vehicle enters the gate completely.
These and other building code violations should be corrected and enforced. In fact we will be proposing that the minimum easement on the major city streets should be two meters, so that the Mayor Mike Rama's sidewalk restoration project will make more sense. We have also proposed that loading and unloading bays in front or in the back should be required of buildings which are more than three stories. Then we will propose to minimize the granting of road closure permits by the city for events like fun runs, marathons, barangay fiestas, night markets, etc. The CCTO clearance should also be the first clearance to be secured by the organizers before going to the City Sports Commission or any other city agency or city official.
Frustration is part of the job description of a member of a policy and planning body of a government agency, so we sometimes tend to go for the "low hanging fruits" to attain some objectives.
Enforcement, education and getting public cooperation are these "low hanging fruits" which can ease traffic effectively in the short term while waiting for the implementation of the traffic infrastructure projects to get done.