Help from MMDA sought

Mandaue City Council passes resolution asking Metro Manila Development Authority to conduct study on Mandaue traffic free of charge

MANDAUE City councilors are looking to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to find ways to decongest the city’s roads.

In a resolution it approved Wednesday, the City Council requested MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino to send experts to study the city’s traffic situation and provide recommendations to address the city’s traffic woes.

“The traffic and road congestion in Mandaue City, just like in Metro Manila and any other metropolitan area, result in tremendous economic loss,” read the resolution sponsored by Councilor Emmarie Ouano-Dizon and co-sponsored by Councilor Elstone Dabon.

The resolution requests the MMDA to give technical assistance for a comprehensive technical study that will provide local planners and policy makers “the relevant empirical data and recommendations necessary to address (the traffic problem) at no cost to the City.”

Dizon said he had talked with Tolentino and asked him if the MMDA could conduct a traffic study in Mandaue City for free.

She said the MMDA had given technical assistance to cities like Davao, Iloilo and Cebu City.

“It is about time that we consider a more systematic approach that also goes beyond the short term,” Dizon said during the regular session.

She said the one-way scheme, the modern traffic lights equipped with surveillance cameras and the drone the City

Wbought to monitor streets may be helping ease the traffic, but these are shortterm measures.

“Time is of the essence. We cannot be waiting for the usual process of allocating a budget, defining the terms of reference, bidding and finding a professional group or consultants to make the study,” Dizon said.

The councilor said Tolentino had only asked for a resolution from the City Council to send a team of experts who can collect data in a week.

According to a study of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica), more than 300,000 trips pass through Mandaue City every day.

Mayor Jonas Cortes earlier said the city’s traffic woes can be solved only through a concerted effort among local government units in Metro Cebu.

The city is the gateway to the cities of Cebu and Lapu-Lapu and the town of Consolacion.

For her part, Dizon said she adheres to the goals of the Mega Cebu movement, which includes a comprehensive traffic plan for Metro Cebu.