SOUTHERN motorists were trapped in traffic for seven hours starting at 7 a.m. Thursday, November 1, in the town of San Fernando.
Counterflowing vehicles and an ongoing road-widening project were blamed for their predicament.
The situation did not improve when motorists arrived next door in Carcar City, where traffic crawled from 7:30 a.m. until 11 a.m.
There, the sheer volume of southbound vehicles was to blame.
Many left Metro Cebu to return to their hometowns for the two-day holiday, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day, that extends to the weekend.
Novem Lowe Taping, head of the traffic unit of the Traffic Enforcement Group of San Fernando, said the traffic started at the boundary of City of Naga and continued all the way to Barangay Pitalo despite the four lanes, which were reduced to three lanes on certain stretches because of the ongoing road-widening project of the Department of Public Works and Highways near the cemetery at the boundary of Barangay San Isidro that caused bottlenecks.
Impatient motorists counterflowed, and their vehicles ended up occupying the northbound lane.
“Ang nahitabo maglisod na og agi ang mga sakyanan kay usa na lang ka lane ang magamit going to Cebu City (What happened was vehicles could hardly pass since only one lane was available for Cebu-City bound motorists),” Taping said.
Encroaching on the opposite lane, or more commonly known as counterflowing, is a form of reckless driving under Republic Act 4136, or the Traffic Code of the Philippines, and is prohibited under the law.
Other southbound vehicles were directed to the barangay road in San Isidro, which is one way, and exited in Barangay Poblacion South to ease the congestion on the main highway.
So as not to aggravate the traffic situation, Taping said they installed barriers at the corner of the cemetery in San Isidro to prevent the entry of vehicles.
It wasn’t until after 2 p.m. that traffic resumed to normal with the help of the police, the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team and members of the town’s disaster risk reduction and management office.
In Carcar, some motorists blamed the heavy traffic on tricycles that made sudden turns.
But Alex Padin, traffic manager of the Carcar City Traffic Management Office, said there were just too many vehicles on the road. Also, the entrance to the cemetery in Cambuntan, Barangay Bolinawan is by the side of the highway, which was why they directed some southbound vehicles to the diversion or bypass roads.
To prevent pedestrians from milling by the roadside or suddenly crossing the highway, Padin said they also placed barriers outside the cemetery.
In a related development, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) 7 limited the issuance of special permits to public utility vehicles (PUVs) to 91 during the two-day holiday.
Of the 91 special permits, 67 were issued to buses and 24 to V-hires.
PUV operators need to secure a special permit from the LTFRB that will allow their vehicles to travel outside their franchise route.
“Kining buses, all across the region for north and south Cebu, for buses totaling 30. Routes were just extended from their original routes up to Bato and Santander. While on the other side, extending from Bogo to Daanbantayan,” said LTFRB 7 Director Eduardo Montealto.
He said they limited the issuance of special permits to prevent a vacuum at the routes that were temporarily abandoned. (from HBL of SuperBalita)