Busted digital board causes traffic problem

CEBU, Philippines — Unsynchronized traffic lights have resulted in traffic congestions in some of the major intersections of Cebu City yesterday.

Ronnie Nadera, spokesperson of the Cebu City Transportation Office, said at least 14 traffic lights were not working properly for seven hours yesterday because of busted digital board resulting in traffic problem in the intersections of Gorordo-Escario; M.J Cuenco- J. Luna; V.Rama- B. Rodriguez; Legaspi- V. Gullas; M.J Cuenco-T. Padilla; P. Lopez- Boromeo; J. Luna- A. Soriano; Katipunan- Salvador; Colon- Mabini; Osmena Blvd.- R.Landon; Leon Kilat – Magallanes; Gorordo - Cardinal Rosales; Arch. Reyes – Gorordo; and Osmena Blvd. - D.Jakosalem.

He said the traffic lights in these areas were not fully functional from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. yesterday.

Nadera said they need to repair the digital board using old spare parts because there are no more replacement parts available.

“Naa na gyuy mga pisa nga karaan na gyud. Wala pod nay replacement kay karaan na maong gi-ayo nalang,” Nadera told reporters.

CCTO had to deploy traffic personnel to manually direct the traffic in the affected areas while the repair was being done. The city is currently using the over 30 years old Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS).

As of 2018, the city’s 72 of 80 controllers are still functional but only 118 of 658 detectors are operational in the existing SCATS.

Nadera said the CCTO officials have already requested the executive department to upgrade the traffic system of the city.

“I think naka request nata for upgrade na gyud. Atong gigamit ang SCATS gihapon,” he added.

Nadera admitted that the obsolete traffic system is one of the contributors to the traffic congestion in the city. (FREEMAN)