Cebu’s worsening traffic congestion

As people use social media nowadays, it’s easier now to know certain technical and environmental conditions in our metropolis based on the number and frequency of online posts. One of these barometers is the state of traffic congestion in our cities. It doesn’t matter if one talks about Cebu City or Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu, and Talisay individually, or the metropolis as a whole --everybody sees that there is a growing aggravation of our traffic congestion. Especially during long holidays like what we just had when people flock to the provinces.

Of course, as there are more travelers during long holidays, it’s expected that there would be more traffic on the road. This is much truer for a linear road system we have in Cebu Island where the road generally runs mostly north and south. As of yesterday, one can already read socmed posts on taking hours to traverse short stretches of highways north and south. On the other hand, there were numerous images of empty streets last Thursday and Friday. And all of these are supposedly normal. But isn’t the congestion becoming worse and longer?

Of course, they do, and one can even observe it over the years. That there is traffic congestion and that it will become worse and longer is normal owing to the inevitable increase in vehicles while road capacities remain the same. We only need to look at the vehicle registration figures at the Land Transportation Office yearly to see that indeed these increase every year and at a predictable level. Meanwhile, road capacities are almost nearly constant for decades except for some instances of road expansions, especially owing to certain big projects funded by foreign loans and grants. Most of the government’s expenditures on roads are on maintenance of existing ones and a few widenings here and there. It’s never enough to meet the demand.

It’s a never-ending cycle --traffic conditions become acute, and people are encouraged to buy cars, causing more congestion. The logical solution would have been to improve and expand public transportation, but that is slow and far between. Both the national government and the local governments seem to be unenthusiastic and indifferent in this aspect, hoping the other will do it instead of taking the initiative. The bright spot would have been the Cebu Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) but the people in charge oddly decided to start with a stretch that connects two commercial areas with commercial malls rather than connect to the residential areas where people live and need mobility to their workplace. Frankly, I don’t understand what piece of logic, common or technical, that was based on.

People will soon forget the traffic jams during the holidays. But it will haunt us for these will become more and more frequent. This is inevitable, and time will soon come that it will become a major problem. You can’t unwish cause and effect --you reap what you sow. Unless our cities get serious with public transportation, our mobility will be going downhill all the way, faster than you think. The keywords are mobility and accessibility, which we lack. Don’t mind me --I bike and walk, ha ha.