Cebu City to upgrade 30-yr-old traffic system

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City government is now starting to look for new technology to upgrade its 30-year-old traffic system.

At a press conference yesterday, City Councilor Jerry Guardo said only 72 of 80 controllers are functional and 118 of 658 detectors are operational in the existing Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS).

“Ang nakanindot man gud sa detector out of 100 percent, 20 percent lang ang functional so ang kato man gung detector mo-detect siya sa density sa traffic. So kung ang kani nga street wala nay sakyanan dili na traffic automatic mo-change to siya ang system mo-transfer siya ang traffic light sa pikas, kung asa to ang heavy ang traffic mao ang paspasan sa time, mo- extend ang time,” he told reporters.

Guardo, chairman of City Council’s committee on transportation, said he was asked by Mayor Tomas Osmeña to look for ways in improving the traffic system of the city.

He said there are eight international and local private suppliers that expressed interest to upgrade the city’s traffic system.

Knowing that only 118 of 658 controllers are operational, Guardo believes that it is one of the “critical” contributors of traffic congestion in the city because the units are already “obsolete.”

As for the controllers, only eight of 80 controllers in different intersections are no longer functional. These areas that do not have functional controllers include Panganiban Street, M.C. Briones Street, P. Burgos Street, Imus New Road, J. C. Vera, Pope John Paul II, F. Llamas, and M. Velez.

There are also other streets in the city that need a traffic system like S. Osmeña, Urot, Cabahug Street, M.J Cuenco, Modesta, Gorordo, N, Bacalso, F. Jaca, ML Quezon, Governor Cuenco Cabancalan, Talamban Gym intersection, Llamas Tres de Abril, among others.

Guardo said the private suppliers and traffic experts from Australia, Taiwan, among others, already proposed different solutions to address the traffic system of the city.

He said among the solutions suggested were upgrading or repairing the current SCATS system; adopting hybrid SCATS OR new technology; or introduce new technology for non-contact apprehension using fiber optic CCTV which can detect traffic violators, among others.

Guardo said the city is still waiting for the unsolicited proposals of the private proponents, saying there’s a need to update the 30-year old SCATS system.

He said he prefers to adopt a totally new technology which is a non-contact apprehension approach

“Unya we also have fiber optic CCTV Cameras. We can early detect kanang mga traffic violations at the same time we will introduce also road engineering and management command center.  So these are the options nga nakuha nako that I will present to the mayor which among the options nga iyang i-prepare but initially nag-istorya mi ni Mayor Tommy gusto niya nga he wanted all suppliers come up with unsolicited proposal,” he said.

Guardo said the winning supplier will be the one to run the whole traffic system. (FREEMAN)