Thursday, May 31, 2007 Citom to look into impact on flow of vehicles in Banilad area as classes resume
THE Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will conduct a traffic impact assessment in Banilad by the end of next month.
Citom did not do the assessment the past months because classes were suspended and traffic at that time did not reflect the overall situation in the area.
Traffic in Banilad and Talamban has worsened that it now takes 15 minutes to get from one end of a certain stretch of road to the other when travel time took only five minutes five years ago.
Arnel Tancinco, Citom executive officer, said June will be a good time to make the traffic impact assessment not only of the Cebu Province’s Ciudad project but of the mushrooming establishments in the area.
The growing number of academic institutions in Banilad and Talamban has been cited as a chief factor in the traffic situation there, he said.
“At this time we cannot give an accurate evaluation with the data we gather because many schools are still closed. What we get will not serve as logical basis (for the traffic impact assessment),” he said.
While three alternative or parallel roads were proposed to ease traffic flow, an assessment is needed for a reliable recommendation, Tancinco explained.
He admitted that a traffic impact study, which is more comprehensive, would have been more suitable, but lack of resources and time compels them to just do an impact assessment. A full study would take six months to one year.
Tancinco, though, said the assessment’s result would still suffice.
Citing worsening traffic, the City Government ordered in February this year a moratorium on all development projects in Banilad.
But this raised suspicions that the declaration was meant to derail the Provincial Government’s Ciudad project, a multi-billion peso joint venture with a private firm.
That was done after the Capitol said it would agree to swap lands with the City “value for value”, instead of under the original terms.
Councilor Augustus Pe Jr., who wrote the resolution authorizing the study, said 13,000 vehicles now pass the area each day.
So what used to be a 30-minute drive from Talamban to Colon St. now stretches up to an hour—and he blamed this on “uncontrolled development” in Banilad and Talamban.
City Planning Officer Paul Villarete told Citom to come up with an updated vehicle volume count, each intersection’s vehicle capacity ratio, traffic movement and actual vehicle dispersal.
Tancinco said they could conduct an assessment by observing traffic flow in at least five random days in a week. (RHM)
