Solving existing and potential problems

LATE last week the

City Transport and

Traffic Management

Office ( CTTMO) of

Davao disclosed that it is working it out with the Land Transportation

Franchising and Regulatory

Board ( LTFRB) for the conversion of the Peak

Hours Augmentation Bus

Service ( PHABS) into a 24-hour-7-day system. CTTMO chief Retired Police Colonel Dionisio Abude also disclosed that should the proposal be approved by the transport regulatory body, the PHAB would be incorporated in the forthcoming Davao Integrated Bus System (DIBS).

This is a welcome development in a city where the population is increasing in a rapid pace and the residential subdivisions and commercial enclaves are already located in the outskirts as far as 20 to 30 kilometers away from the from the central district.

Moreover, the need for efficient and sufficient public transportation has become even more acute. This is because most people are employed with establishments located within the urban area of the city or in places where the nature of company activities are allowed under existing zoning regulations. Also, most educational institutions are in the downtown area with some also putting up campuses in fast growing residential and commercial areas like Mintal, Toril, Calinan, Buhangin, Cabantian, Panacan and Bunawan. Thus, the movement of people both from the city proper and the outskirts are two ways at all time of the day.

For now, except for residents of Toril, Calinan, and Catalunan Grande, people in the rest of the city have to depend on public utility jeeps and taxi units for their transport needs. But while there are so many units of these public utility vehicles plying specified routes, at certain hours of the day their number becomes wanting because the start and end of work schedules are the same except for a few.

Hence, in the morning it becomes common sight in terminals of public utility vehicles people forming long lines or simply crowding while waiting for their ride. And as soon as PUJs arrive courtesy on gender and age is sacrificed as everyone competes to get a seat.

As most vehicles, public or private, are going towards the city proper within the hours 6 to 9 in the morning, traffic also builds up in roads known to be the city’s choke points like some stretches of roads traversing Matina, Bajada, and Buhangin.

Our traffic management experts explain that the reason why these road sections of the city have become choke points is that all vehicles going south, southwest, north and northwest and vice versa, all converge thereat.

As a consequence, people residing in the outskirts or outside the city center who miss their rides in the hours earlier mentioned got stocked up until the PUJs that have ferried earlier passengers to the downtown area slip through the traffic gridlock.

The same situation is basically the same for those who are raring to go home after their hard day’s work. During the early evening people living outside of the city proper converge at designated or known jeep terminals waiting for their rides back home. And considering their number some have to go physical just to be ahead of the others in getting a seat.

Again, upon reaching the choke points their rides get stuck up as long as almost an hour. This makes their trip back home long and the return trip of the public utility jeeps to the downtown area even longer.

So, by the time the jeeps are back in their downtown terminals the passengers waiting have also grown in number. But of course the time they spend for waiting has also gone much longer as well; time that they could have spent bonding with members of their families or doing meaningful household chores.

It is this problem that the PHABS and the planned DIBS are intending to solve, with the former on the short term and the latter on the long term.

We are certain however, that the planners of the

PHABS’s conversion into a 24/7 bus service are aware that this proposed solution to an existing problem of the perceived public transportation lack will also be creating a problem for some people. And we are talking of the drivers and operators of public conveyances that will be affected by the planned transport system.

There will definitely be a huge dip in the income of drivers and jeep owners once the augmentation buses become their permanent competitors in their routes. And when this happens several families will be economically dislocated.

In other words, in the local government’s effort to provide convenience to the riding public the livelihood of some sectors are being sacrificed.

We are therefore constrained to ask these questions: Has the city prepared for alternative livelihood for drivers who will be adversely affected by the PHABS and later the DIBS? Has it identified opportunities for transport related or other ventures that the affected operators can go into as the PHABS and the DIBS implementation impacts on them?

We are certain planners of the two projects have thought of the potential problems. But what we are not sure about is whether or not whatever ideas they have in solving them (problems) are laid on the table ready for implementation once the 24/7 PHABS and the DIBS are rolled out.

As the saying goes, any proposed solution can only be effective when these are crafted together with the project or projects from where the problems are likely to emanate.