EDITORIAL - Discipline

An American company is being eyed to help address Cebu City’s traffic concerns. Councilor Jerry Guardo said they will seek the services of California-based Leotek in the city’s effort to improve its traffic system.

If the plan pushes through, Leotek will install cameras at intersections in the city to monitor the drivers. The project will initially have an intersection along Osmeña Boulevard as pilot area with the firm sending personnel to the city this month for a test run.

The city officials learned about Leotek, a known maker of street signal lighting products and solutions, during a recent visit to Taiwan where the firm installed cameras at intersections to monitor motorists.

Such method has helped instill discipline among drivers in that neighboring country and Cebu City officials hope to duplicate it in the city. According to Guardo – chairman of the City Council committee on environment, energy, transportation, communication and other utilities – the city will have Leotek manage the situation at that intersection along Osmeña Boulevard to see if traffic will improve.

There’s really a need for the city to upgrade its outmoded traffic system, which can no longer adequately cater to the increasing volume of vehicles. Since the system no longer functions properly, this sometimes causes accidents.

The sooner City Hall fixes this problem, the sooner the public can adapt to the new system. That is why authorities have to consider the urgency of putting up the new system, considering the city’s worsening traffic problem.

In addition to the new system, local traffic authorities should also begin to intensify steps against erring motorists and pedestrians. The new system is really of big help in the effort to discipline everyone about the need to follow traffic regulations.

It would really be useless if, while the city embraces the modern monitoring traffic method, the public continues to violate the rules. The bottom line is that it is still discipline that should be on top of everything if we want the new system to succeed.