EDITORIAL - Where are the traffic solutions?

The second half of 2016 saw the number of vehicles plying the different roads in Metro Cebu ballooning. And the result? Heavier traffic congestion. Solutions were promised even before road conditions worsened and traffic congestion became unbearable here in Cebu. But where are these solutions now?

The worsening traffic condition in Metro Cebu was felt in the last two quarters of 2015 with the opening of new shopping malls and the implementation of road repairs in preparation for international events.  Road repairs in Minglanilla town in the south and in Mandaue City, as well as the closure of the Mandaue-Mactan Bridge for repairs, are among the traffic horrors that Cebuanos experienced last year.

As early as 2013, there were already plans to create a Metro Cebu-wide traffic body. Cebu City North District Representative Raul del Mar's House Bill 372 and the House Bill 5556 of Cebu sixth district Representative Luigi Quisumbing, who is now mayor of Mandaue City, got stuck at the committee level and the traffic body that was supposed to handle traffic problems in Metro Cebu remains just a plan.

Then there's the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit. The P10.6-billion BRT, approved in May 2014 and projected to be fully operational this year, was seen to address worsening traffic in Cebu City since once it is in place, buses will traverse the city's major thoroughfares. As of November 29 last year, the project hit snags, one of which, according to Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña, is that the Aquino administration, which approved the project, apparently did not sign the contract for the consultant of the project.

During his first State of the Nation Address last July, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that Cebu will be among the provinces that will get a mass transit system. Light Rail Transit (LRT) experts from Singapore have even visited Cebu to conduct a study.

An LRT project for Cebu had been pushed since 1993 by the Department of Transportation but this did not materialize.  A pre-feasibility study for a monorail system was also pushed in 1998 but nobody sponsored it. In 2009, an unsolicited proposal from AMA for a 19-kilomoter Cebu LRT project from Tabunok in Talisay City to Mandaue City was approved by the DOTC but was rejected by Cebu City in favor of the BRT. Cebu first district Representative Gerald Anthony Gullas pushed for the inclusion of the Cebu LRT in the Private-Private Partnership portfolio in September 2013 but the proposal was ignored.

And today, we are on the second day of 2017. How many more traffic solutions will be dangled before us this year? Which of these will become a reality? Let's wait and see.