SO IT has been almost a year since that monster traffic jam that hit the portion of the Cebu South Coastal Road from the South Road Properties in Cebu City to Carcar City happened. I was caught in that traffic jam and it took me more than five hours to reach our residence in Minglanilla from the Talisay City-portion of the coastal road, which normally would have taken me less than an hour.
It’s good that the Cebu Provincial Government, through its focal person on traffic management Jonathan Tumulak, is making sure there wouldn’t be a repeat of such incident, which was partly blamed on traffic enforcers in Minglanilla town having left the streets to attend their Christmas party. There were obviously other factors, but the lack of traffic enforcers directing traffic flow was the big one.
The request was for traffic enforcers of concerned local government units (LGUs) like Talisay and Minglanilla not to hold Christmas parties, which was quickly shot down by the said LGUs. The promise was that even if such an activity would be held, traffic enforcers won’t leave the streets.
I say the presence of traffic enforcers is crucial to preventing another monster traffic jam from happening. To be fair to the traffic enforcers in Minglanilla town, I also didn’t see the Talisay City traffic enforcers at the height of that traffic mess. And it is in Talisay City when traffic from the coastal road merges with the one on the south highway.
In that traffic jam, the first thing I noticed was that traffic halted or moved too slowly where vehicles from Tabunok in Talisay and those from the coastal road merged near Star Mall (now All Home). This as vehicle traffic on the south road going to Minglanilla proper was also barely moving. When the traffic there moved, vehicles from the south road and those from the coastal road would compete for the available space and without a traffic enforcer, chaos.
A truck occupying one lane of the part of the coastal road that merged with the south road conked out, making narrow that intersection on the coastal road side. Meanwhile, vehicles stuck on the coastal road attempted to break free by using the Talisay road that intersects the south road about a kilometer away from Star Mall, near a gasoline station. When they occupied the meager space in that intersection, they got stuck because traffic going to Minglanilla wasn’t moving. They thus blocked the south road traffic going to the city.
What I am saying is that traffic became a mess everywhere because of anarchy caused by the lack of traffic enforcers who could have took stock of the situation and found a solution instead of leaving the drivers to try to solve the problem themselves through one-upmanship. I reckon that in the late afternoon, all the traffic enforcers surrendered and abandoned the street altogether.
In that traffic jam, motorcycles used the side of the road and every available space, people walked to their destination and the situation stabilized only by near midnight. It was the worst traffic jam and therefore memorable. I hope it wouldn’t happen again.