THE title suggests that the motor vehicles queuing bumper to bumper along our main roads and streets especially during rush hours is what defines the traffic situation in the city.
However, the title is also suggestive of what the traffic crisis in Baguio is all about, the long queue lines of hundreds of commuters waiting for public utility jeepneys (PUVs) to ferry them home or their place of work or school. Such is the present traffic mess in the city that during rush hours particularly in the afternoon we can find these lone lines of commuters waiting for their jeepneys to arrive and transport them to their destinations. For some, those with extra money, they jostle among other commuters to wait for taxicabs or for the fortunate ones a pre-ordered cab from grab.
This is now the present situation being experienced by many residents in Baguio particularly those without their personal means of transportation and who rely on public utility vehicles for their travels.
The only positive thing out of this seemingly unrelenting inconvenience is the ability of these affected commuters to bear this encumbrance in silence.
If the new city mayor Benjamin Magalong is able to challenge city officials to join him and work for a day at the Irisan dumpsite perhaps he can also invite this same officials to join him in experiencing the long queue lines of commuters as they wait for their jeepneys to arrive in their staging and loading areas. May be then the gravity of the traffic congestion will finally be understood by those tasked to find solutions to the problem.
Admittedly, there is no easy and simple solution to the traffic mess considering the limited and narrow roads and streets and the ever increasing number of motor vehicles traversing them daily.
But perhaps and as a suggestion the long queuing lines of commuters can gradually dissipate if certain measures are adopted such as: a. the possibility of adopting a comprehensive and flexible time schedule for private and government workers as well as those going to and from schools. This way the term rush hour will no longer mean snail paced traffic and long queuing lines of commuters; b. the possibility of extending the office hours of certain offices at the city government to allow the city hall premises to be open even at nighttime. Public service should be dispensed 24 hours a day even on Saturdays and Sundays.
If the police and firemen, and even emergency responders can render public service 24/7 then some of the vital offices at city hall that process and approve documents should likewise be open at night. It is not overtime since what is suggested is for a segment of the city government bureaucracy to perform and render work during nighttime until the next morning under a flexible time schedule. That way the city government operates much like a 7/11 convenience store or a hospital.
Another possibility is to establish centralized staging areas where PUJs can stand-by before proceeding to their loading areas to pick up passengers or in the extreme remove staging areas and simply direct all PUJs to go on express mode of travel along their routes. A time and motion study can be done to determine whether the express system being implemented for Trancoville and Aurora Hill PUJs can also be adopted for other PUJs and their routes in the city.
Finally, it must be emphasized that for the city to move along in its development the problem on traffic must be resolved since it directly affects the economic wellbeing of the locality in the long run.