Opening alternative routes

IREAD posted on Facebook complaints by a commuter or two about having been caught in a traffic gridlock going south a few days ago. One said it took her five hours to travel from Argao town to Minglanilla town, a route that “only” passes Carcar City, San Fernando town and Naga City. One response noted that a fiesta was celebrated somewhere in San Fernando. I don't know about that but it could be true.

It's not only in Minglanilla that traffic woes have been encountered often. When we traveled to Dalaguete town in August last year, we had to endure slow movement of vehicles and the heat of the noon sun in Carcar. We weren't surprised because that city had by then become notorious for the traffic gridlock from the malls to the rotunda where the vehicles going to and from the south converge.

That was around four months ago. The other day, a councilor in one of the barangays in Carcar told me that the traffic woes there have eased considerably the past few weeks with the opening of alternate routes that bypass the malls and the rotunda. He even proudly claimed that in the recent fiesta (was it in November?) they no longer had to assist in maintaining order because no traffic jams occurred.

If that is true, then good. That only shows that local government units (LGUs), including the Cebu Provincial Government and the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) must have realized by now that the south road no longer suffices as the sole vehicular artery even if it is widened. Alternative routes need to be built to ease the traffic pressure on the old road.

I read in yesterday's issue of Sun.Star Superbalita about Vice Gov. Agnes Magpale's plan to have Capitol take the lead in finding alternative routes or constructing new roads to ease the traffic pressure on the old Metro Cebu road networks. She talked, for example, about a route from Cebu City to Compostela town and another from Cebu City to Danao City that bypasses the old north highway.

If Carcar City has found a way to ease the traffic pressure on its poblacion, then towns like San Fernando and Minglanilla and cities like Naga and Talisay must do the same to roads that are prone to traffic jams, especially when fiestas are celebrated by villages where the south road passes. Unfortunately, either the officials of concerned LGUs are not creative enough or they don't feel its urgency.

In a way, I was frustrated with the way Rep. Gerald Anthony Gullas responded to complaints about traffic gridlocks occurring within the jurisdiction of some LGUs in the first district. He called for a gathering of officials of the said LGUs and ended up with the “grand plan” of instituting a truck ban on the south road. They should have plotted instead alternative routes and how to make these viable.

Gullas is a proponent of a light rail transit as mass transport from, was it Carcar City in the south to Danao City in the north? But that would take years to realize. In the meantime, he can push for the construction of roads that would bypass gridlock-prone portions of the south road within every first district LGUs. I am sure first district execs have some bright ideas on this.

This can be done by widening existing municipal or barangay roads or constructing new roads that would connect probably disjointed existing routes. Talisay City for example, has a lonely road in the coastal area that connects to Barangay Tungkil in Minglanilla while a narrow road connects Tungkil father south to Barangay Calajoan then to Barangay Tungkop still in Minglanilla bypassing the south road. That route can be developed fully.