Because of the lack of foresight, planning, and a sense of urgency among local officials, land travel between Cebu and Mactan and Cebu City and northern Cebu has become virtually impossible due to unavoidable and long-scheduled road and bridge projects that no one had a mind to prepare for. And now that the terrible traffic mess is upon us, local officials have suddenly realized they need to scramble for emergency solutions.
One solution they have stumbled upon is to increase the number and frequency of small passenger ferries crisscrossing the Mactan Channel between Cebu City and Lapu-Lapu City. They have even suggested throwing in barges to ferry vehicles as well. On the surface, these suggestions would seem to be a pretty neat idea. Just take some of the land traffic and put them to sea and, voila, the problem is solved.
Unfortunately, the problem is far too complex for such a simplistic solution. For one, throwing in more ferries into the Cebu City to Lapu-Lapu City route will mean just that — more ferries in that route. There is another way of saying it — route congestion. Route congestion immediately invokes safety concerns and raises a host of questions that must be answered first before the plan is allowed to swing into effect.
For example, what is the navigational integrity of the route in terms of safety? Are there no navigational hazards along the way? What is the existing volume of maritime traffic along the route? Are the ferries, both existing and those planned to be thrown in, all equipped with the necessary maritime navigation instruments, especially for nighttime travel, as in fact the plan would have ferries playing the route before daybreak and way up until almost midnight?
It may indeed seem so easy to just say throw in more ferries so that more people can avoid taking the land routes between Cebu and Mactan. But as you can see, it is not that easy and simple. There are considerations to make, many of them issues involving safety. All of these need to be addressed before the plan should be allowed to take effect.
Moreover, it is similarly simplistic to say that adding more ferries will result in less traffic on land. Has a study been made that says so? If local officials were caught flat-footed by the traffic despite the road and bridge projects having been scheduled and repeatedly postponed since August, clearly it never occurred to them to make a study on ferries as an alternative route to ease land traffic between Cebu and Mactan.
What additional ferries will do is take away some passengers from land transportation. But that does not mean a reduction in the number of land traffic in the affected areas. Jeepneys will not stop plying their routes. Neither will taxis. Private vehicles will still be there. And if it takes only a P20 thousand downpayment for a small car, many more will be joining their number on the road. Traffic is not only staying, it is expanding out to sea.