Encore on traffic

The immediate surroundings of the Angkor Wat in Cambodia and Taj Mahal in India are incredible examples of near perfect planning. Please read again. I am referring to the premises of these great structures meaning the beautiful gardens, the aesthetic walk ways and yes, even the unbelievably built dams serving as ponds of water. I raise this alert because the grandeur of Angkor Wat and Taj Mahal demands the full attention of visitors such that their premises are often overlooked if not taken for granted. Khmer King Suryavarman II and Emperor Shah Jahan, while not known as urban planners, in the manner and context we talk of the title at present, had the unimpeded luxury of choosing the sites where to build their labor of love.

Today, Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, does not have the luxury of Suryavarman and Shah Jahan. Even if he wants to bequeath to future Cebuano generations a beautiful Cebu City in a much better quality of life than the bad rating suffered by Manila, in a recent survey, he is, in a sense, limited. He heads a city with a road network that grew more out of necessity than from careful planning. To reinvent our city streets to the level of the great metropolitan centers of the world, he, his Vice Mayor Michael Rama and their trusted planners can just view the picture of our city taken from a hovering drone armed with modern technology that is capable of producing detailed topography. As an initial step, they can start examining our road network and i am of the belief that they will be horrified at finding our streets suffering from obvious absence of planning.

Here are the verifiable facts our city officials will stumble upon in looking at the city map. Many of our streets are short, disjointed and crooked. (Sorry, i cannot find a word more appropriate than crooked, to describe a road that is not straight). Rather than overwhelm our officials by citing a trunk load city streets demanding attention, let us just take few examples. In the north district of our city, I cite Bonifacio and Cabantan Streets.

These are roads that the Revised Road Ordinance of 1992 had in its radar. To recall, this ordinance, now almost three decades old, mandated three inter-related precepts: (1) widen narrow streets, (2) straighten crooked ones and (3) open new roads. These precepts are supposedly applicable to these two roads. Bonifacio Street is short. Its two ends are at M. J. Cuenco and D. Jakosalem. It may be worth for our city officials to consider extending this road from its MJ Cuenco end towards McArthur Boulevard in the North Reclamation Area and from its D Jakosalem end towards Gen Junquera and on to Osmeña Boulevard. If, with an extension, it links with McArthur Blvd., it can help absorb a part of the traffic volume of the north reclamation area. On the other hand, if Bonifacio Street is extended towards Osmeña Blvd., it can help ease the vehicular load at D Jakosalem that is perceived to be the major cause of traffic jams in the area.

 Cabantan Street crosses the MJ Cuenco Avenue as it winds thru Barangays Mabolo and Luz. It can be extended to the North Reclamation area on its eastern end in order to absorb the traffic from the cities of Mandaue and Lapulapu towards Ayala’s Cebu Business Park. Cabantan needs to be extended from Archbishop Reyes Avenue to Gorordo Avenue on its west to provide alternative road to Salinas Drive. Here is a further caveat. The lengthening of Cabantan Street will be of less usefulness if it is not widened. It therefore is important that the entire lengthed road has to be widened to a four-lane highway.

By the way, i am writing on this subject again because Mayor Labella, in a text message last Thursday, mentioned that he is studying our traffic woes with the end in view of finding lasting solutions. He reacted to my write up on reducing the number of vehicles plying our roads with an emphasis that he would not resort to pallative remedies. His text was heart warming. I just hope that he finds time to imbibe what the Revised Road Ordinance provides and implement its provisions that remain viable.