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Sunday, April 16, 2006
Davao City traffic flow improving: survey
THERE is a mark improvement in the flow of traffic in Davao City making the city 5th among Asean cities with the best flow of traffic in 2005.
Traffic Management Center head Celso Gempesaw, in an interview during last week's Club 888 Forum at The Marco Polo Hotel, said a group of companies operating in the Asean conducted the survey.
Three years back a similar survey was conducted where Davao City ranked 27th on its flow of traffic among the Asean cities.
Gempesaw, however, admitted that there are still traffic violations committed by some public utility drivers but the current flow of traffic is much better compared the last year.
He attributed the improvement to the continuous apprehension of the violators and the continuing education being given to drivers.
Gempesaw said that the limited resources is a factor that hinders efficient implementation
But they try to make both ends meet just to maintain better flow of traffic.
"If I were to propose the ideal budget could be P39 million as against the current fund of only P20 million," he said.
He said they could hire additional traffic personnel to add to the existing 360 human resources where only 50 percent are field at one time as they operate on shifting just to provide continuous operation of traffic handling specially during peak hours.
He, however, said that under supplemental budget No. 1 an additional P5 million will be added to its budget while under supplemental budget No. 2 he is proposing for about P12 million so that the proposed plans and programs be carried out within the year.
In Davao City alone, he said about 80 percent of those plying the city's thoroughfares are privately owned and only 20 percent are public utilities.
He said per record about 35,000 vehicles are registered in Davao City and 20 percent of the vehicles in Region 11 are plying in and out of the city, it being the center of commerce and trade in Mindanao.
There are some innovations that has to be done in order to improve the flow of traffic even as Gempesaw said that it is all systems go in the traffic signalization program of the City Government with a funding of P100 million.
He also said that with the increasing number of vehicles there is a need to open several road-right-of-way (RRW) to provide alternate route to motorists.
There are about 16 of these RRW but he said they only recommended five as priority that has to be available within the year.
Among these routes are Roxas to connect to Tionko, Chavez (Buyayang) towards Villamor in Bo. Obrero, Gempesaw to Lapu-lapu, Roxas/Jacinto towards Palma Gil St., Bonifacio Monument (Rotonda) passing Magallanes to Bolton Bridge (ilalim).
Gempesaw could not however provide the growth of vehicle density in Davao City. But it could also be observed on the population growth of the city saying that in 1998 the city only has about 500,000 plus population, in 2001 over 800,000 but in 2004 the city's population already reached 1.4 million.
"I think with this population the acquisition of vehicles also increased," he said.
Meanwhile, Gempesaw said that they have a 24-hour response team that can assist motorists that are caught on transportation problem as well as accident.
"This has been ongoing and all the motorists would have to do is contact the TMC," he said.
Gempesaw also admitted that there are still several traffic violations and even the drivers could file cases in court.
But he said that the only way to fast track cases related to traffic is when there is a traffic court and with this body all cases filed could be acted quickly and resolution could be fast. (PIA/PDB)
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (April 16, 2006 issue)
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