Traffic management is not rocket science
We watch the movie "The Martian" last week and the physics and the mathematics that had to be done to make sure that the orbiting space station would rendezvous with the capsule that Matt Damon would rocket up from Mars was heavy. Given the speed of the orbiting station, the additional acceleration gained by the centripetal force when they "slingshot" the station around Earth, they had to determine the exact time that Matt Damon should lift off on the rocket with the stripped down capsule. They also had to recompute the weight of the capsule so it will reach the higher altitude that will meet the station. That was "Rocket Science."
Traffic management is not really as complicated even if it uses some physics and engineering. The variables in traffic management are space and the amount of vehicles. Pressure and temperature which in the Boyle's law: V=constant T/P, which establishes the relationship between volume, temperature and pressure, are mostly in the heads of drivers who are caught in a traffic jam and may lead to "road rage." The issue in traffic management is how to accommodate the amount of vehicles in a given space, and how to increase the flow of the vehicles in that given space. The answers are: 1. to enlarge the space or reduce the amount of vehicles in that space, and 2. improve the flow of the vehicles in the given space. Additional roads, road widening, overpasses and having a mass transport system will address no. 1, but will take time so the need should have been anticipated.
Removing/reducing road obstructions by enforcing obstructing violations, optimizing and flaring of intersections, paving and smoothing of roads will address no.2.
The CCTO Board, of which I have been the chairman for the past 2 years are well aware of the situation and the solutions and these are what we have been doing and proposing: 1. we have kept on improving enforcement by adding and training more traffic managers/enforcers and coordinating with the LTO and the Police; 2. redesigning and re-orienting the traffic directions to increase the flow; 3. coordinating with DPWH and City Engineering in the repaving of the roads; 4. assisting in the implementation of the BRT, and planning the new citywide traffic light system; 5. identifying and suggesting to DPWH and City Engineering the roads to be built, widened, flared and the loading and unloading bays to be built; 6. pinpointing and assisting the other city departments in the removal of the structures that have been encroaching on the roads and streets; 7. educating and continuing dialogues with transport operators and the general public; 8. providing inputs to the City Planners and the Civil Society on the need for a subway and a cable car system for Metro Cebu in the near future.
Among the specific projects that we hope will be finished before 2018 are: the widening of the Banilad to Talamban road, particularly from TESDA overpass to the Ma. Luisa overpass. Another is the parallel road from Guadalupe to Lahug, which will decrease the vehicle volume passing through Escario St. Then there is the three (3) proposed new roads leading to the South Road properties. And the 84 loading and unloading bays that will replace all the jeepney stops all over the city. These projects will go a long way in alleviating the worsening traffic in the city, and it is not "rocket science" at all.
Francis Tolentino is not destined to be a senator. His initials FT also means "Failed by Twerking" or "Falpak sa Twerking." While we are in the subject of entertainment, I think I have figured out what makes "AlDub" such a TV hit. I just have to read up on social anthropology and watch a few episodes to confirm my theory and I will write about it in a succeeding column.