WITH hardly any new roads being built, an increasing number of vehicles on the road remains the top cause of road congestion in the country, including Cebu.
“The increase in automobiles or private vehicles is the number one reason behind road congestion in Cebu,” said lawyer Rafael Christopher Yap, acting department head of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO).
“It really affects the traffic situation,” Yap said.
In Cebu alone, the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-Central Visayas recorded 111,342 newly registered vehicles from January to August this year.
This is 7.45 percent higher compared to the 103,620 total new vehicles the office registered last year.
Of that number, newly-registered utility vehicles were among the top four-wheel vehicles purchased this year.
As of August, 8,976 utility vehicles were purchased.
Sedans followed, with 7,235 purchases in the first eight months of the year, followed by sports utility vehicles (3,855 units) and trucks (1,567).
In the first eight months of the year, there were 88,899 motorcycles sold. In the same period, 3,479 motorcycles with sidecars were also purchased.
The number of vehicles with renewed registration was smaller this year, though, compared with the registrations renewed from January to August in 2015.
Last year, LTO recorded 297,832 vehicles with renewed registrations in the first eight months, which is higher than the 287,787 renewed in the same period this year.
Still rising
Yap, who provided the data, said the numbers may still increase.
While road discipline and traffic education can help ease traffic, Yap said the government has to concentrate on how to improve infrastructure to meet the growing number of cars.
Yap pointed out that the government is studying mass transport systems to encourage car users to commute more. In Cebu City, Yap said, that’s why the City Government has pushed for the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit.
The national government, in the other hand, is pushing for the Cebu Rail Project.
In his State of the Nation Address, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Cebu will get its share of infrastructure projects, including rail, to improve the traffic situation.
Cebu is also covered by a bill to grant the president emergency powers—including a waiver of the public bidding requirement for traffic improvement projects—to fix the traffic.
For Joebert Rosales, 26, who is a call center agent, taking mass transport would not be a problem as long as it won’t compromise his convenience and safety.
Convenience
Rosales who has been riding public utility jeepneys in going to and from work, said safety and security, in addition to convenience, are the issues he has to hurdle every day.
“I think car owners will prefer taking public transportation if our standard will be patterned after that of other countries where better transport is offered to their residents,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
In a separate interview, car owner Van Brandon Abatayo, 26, said he prefers to drive on his own, so he won’t have to compete with other passengers.
“What’s important for me is convenience,” he said.
Abatayo bought his car last March.
Legislative measures may also be undertaken to solve the traffic puzzle, Yap said. These can include limiting vehicle ownership, requiring a parking space before anyone can buy a car, and requiring that vehicles past a certain age be kept off the roads.
To temporarily ease traffic, Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier proposed that private cars be banned from the two Mandaue-Mactan bridges at certain hours, particularly during peak traffic.
But he also reiterated the need to provide better mass transport.