Thursday, November 13, 2008 So: Road courtesy By Michelle P. So Caught in the Net
FOR those who were around to complain about the traffic mess Metro Cebu was mired in back when there was only one Mactan bridge, zero overpasses and one or two alternative routes, they still are complaining about traffic despite the addition of another Mactan bridge, 10 or so overpasses, the South Coastal Road, the Ayala roads and the widening of major roads.
The city planners by now have realized that no amount of infrastructure development could address a problem such as traffic congestion if the drivers remained uneducated about road courtesy.
The lack of road courtesy by many Cebu drivers was one of the major causes of traffic jams pointed out in the special reports on Metro Cebu’s traffic problem Sun.Star Cebu did in 1991 and 1994. Infrastructure solutions, proposed in the 1991 and 1994 special reports, have been carried out but the traffic problem has persisted.
I bring this up because our public officials are again floating the idea to shift from a traditional mode of mass transport, the ubiquitous jeepney, to a bus rapid transport (BRT) system as a way to decongest our roads. It will entail a lot of political strength by our elected leaders to bring this idea down and make it a practicable solution to Metro Cebu’s traffic trouble.
The infrastructure solutions, then labeled as “long-term plans” to help solve the monstrous traffic crisis, are in place today. It took our political leaders 10 to 15 years to carry them out and make them tangible.
These “long-term plans” were the construction of new roads, the widening of existing major streets, the construction of a second Mandaue-Mactan bridge, the construction of overpasses in Cebu, Mandaue and Talisay cities, and the installation of a computerized motor vehicle inspection system that would test the roadworthiness of vehicles.
But have these traffic solutions made our drivers, especially those of public utility vehicles, any better?
If a BRT is adopted in Metro Cebu, this would mean fewer public utility vehicles and would zap out irritatingly discourteous drivers. But a BRT is not a long-term plan yet; it’s not in the so-called drawing board of our government planners.
If our city planners were serious in adopting the BRT, they would have made efforts to kick it off soon after their visit to Curritiba, Brazil in 1998. “It’s a political decision,” former Bogota mayor Enrique Penalosa said at the BRT forum in Cebu this week. It is.
And so is traffic enforcement. No mode of modern mass transport or form of infrastructure can decongest roads if drivers weren’t road-disciplined.
A traffic consultant had said: There is nothing wrong with the drivers per se. It’s the system that allows them to behave the way they want. When the system restricts, they behave much better.
The 1991 special report of Sun.Star Cebu has pointed out that “even with the improvements, traffic congestion in Metro Cebu will not reduce dramatically. Unless the number of vehicles is regulated under the same road availability and the public remain uneducated on road courtesy, congestion will continue to haunt the people of Metro Cebu.”
Traffic congestion requires an orchestrated solution that will involve infrastructure, systems, political will and driver education.
