I’VE had my share of very exasperating moments in a traffic gridlock but none of them lasted for seven hours like the one reported in San Fernando, Cebu, on All Saints Day, Nov. 1. (All Souls Day is Nov. 2.) Anyway, in practically all of them the main cause--not so much of the gridlock but of the excruciatingly long time to unravel it--is counter-flowing stupid drivers.
Stupid and/or ill-disciplined drivers have been known to occupy the oncoming lane and cause traffic to lock vehicles in place. Thus, in this latest case the gridlock was caused more by the local government unit’s (LGU) failure to anticipate a most likely problem than by the problem itself of stupid counter-flowing drivers.
The road widening is a given. But with a thorough plan, the much bigger volume of vehicles through the construction areas should only slow down but not stop traffic. Only stupid counter-flowing drivers would stop it. And this the San Fernando LGU (and the Land Transportation Office?) failed miserably to anticipate. Or if it did, it fell victim to our “puede na” culture and came up with half-baked ways of preventing the dumb and stupid counter-flow.
Obviously, San Fernando’s LGU did not prepare for this eventuality and the gridlock which it should have anticipated and prevented in fact happened. It’s too easy, irresponsibly so, to blame the sheer volume of traffic for the gridlock. San Fernando’s LGU should have presumed from experience that stupid drivers will counter-flow or occupy the on-coming lane and cause a gridlock.
I read about the seven-hour gridlock when I was in Loyola Memorial Park with my wife’s family and could not help compare it to the way Marikina’s LGU managed traffic around Loyola Memorial Park. Traffic was slow because of the sheer volume of vehicles but it was moving because the re-routing was well planned and ample manpower was in place to prevent stupid counter-flows. Marikina, I later found out, also took in volunteers (given daily allowance for the duration) to shore up manpower requirements at choke points.
I’m sure the volume of vehicles in Loyola was more than the volume in San Fernando. But there was no gridlock because the Marikina LGU was responsibly pro-active and creative in finding ways to prevent anticipated problems from occurring.
The gridlock in San Fernando was not caused by vehicle density on a road that is being worked on. Rather, it was caused by the sorry convergence of stupid drivers and an inept LGU.
Apropos to this, I am calling out LTO Visayas Regional Director Victor Caindec for insisting to Mayor Thomas Osmeña that only the LTO has the power to impound vehicles. Fine, so why doesn’t Caindec do it so we are rid of dumb drivers who counter-flow and cause stupid gridlocks?