Wednesday, January 03, 2007 Osmeña: Need for infrastructure investment By Antonio V. Osmeña Estatements
BEFORE the automobile was invented, Cities tended to be compact. By necessity, most urban dwellers lived within easy walking distance of their jobs, the stores where they shop and the schools where their children attend classes.
Stores and offices often had living quarters above them. The compactness was convenient and fostered a close identification with one’s neighborhood and neighbors.
The introduction of the automobile in the early 1900s and the lowering of the cost per vehicle through mass production, in particular, began changing all this.
By providing almost unlimited mobility, automobiles and the highways that followed have been a major factor in the urban sprawl that characterizes the highly decentralized cities of our country today.
But automobile travel has caused road congestion that, in turn, decreases the average automobile speed.
In the 1930s, the average speed of a horse-drawn vehicle through central Cebu City was measured at 18.5 kilometers per hour. Today, crosstown Cebu City traffic, among cars and trucks with the potential power of 200 to 300 horses, creeps along at an average of 8.4 kilometers per hour.
This situation emphasizes the importance of infrastructure investment on the future of Cebu.
Since the late 1980s, there has been four major population shifts in our country: (1) rural-to-urban shift; (2) central city-to-suburbs; (3) metropolitan-to-nonmetropolitan; and (4) the transfer of people from Luzon to southern provinces.
Since 1950, many urban areas have started spreading outward to merge physically with neighboring cities and suburbs. Such is the beginning of the Metro Cebu area or megapolis.
The decentralization of Cebu’s society —with people moving from densely populated cities to more spread-out towns—raises the need for a more efficient transport system.
If the shift in population continues as expected, many towns as far as Daanbantayan in the north and Santander in the south will grow and become urban areas.
In a decade or two, the whole island of Cebu will become an urban center that would demand a more efficient transport system.
Transportation systems and options within and between urban areas are major factors determining the spatial pattern, degree of sprawl, and the rate of economic growth of an urban area.
People in urban areas move from one place to another through three modes of transportation: (1) individual transit (private automobile, taxi, motorcycle, bicycle and walking); (2) mass transit (railroad, subway, trolley and bus); and (3) paratransit (car pool, van pool, jitneys or van taxis traveling along fixed routes and dial-a-ride systems).
Any successful urban transportation system requires a mix of individual, mass transit and paratransit methods designed to suit a particular urban area.
Cebu’s provincial roads and national highways that connect towns and cities definitely need to be widened. If left as they are, these obsolete road networks will hamper economic growth.
The roads in the cities of Mandaue and Talisay, for instance, are designed for animal carriage vehicles only. The absence of a national road cutting across these cities would cease economic activities in the areas.
The influx of people to rural towns and cities has increased the stress on many overburdened local governments, hindering their ability to provide schools, houses, sewage disposal and infrastructure facilities.
Thus, the Cebuano community has to decide which infrastructure the government should prioritize.
The local government should now look into infrastructure investment. But local government units (LGUs) should not rely entirely on national aid for infrastructure improvements.
Infrastructure investment should be a priority of LGUs.
Gov. Gwendolyn Garica and members of the Provincial Board have the talent to initiate massive infrastructure investment around the island of Cebu. They know how to raise money to pay for needed infrastructure in Cebu.
