RAMIREZ
I don’t usually pass that portion of M.J. Cuenco Avenue in Cebu City that leads to the boundary of Cebu and Mandaue cities as I anticipate the heavy traffic congestion caused by the utility trucks crossing the street at any time.
Traffic is really bad in the area, and the public had blamed the trucks owned by a big hardware store operating there. The store also uses several big warehouses located in both sides of the highway as their main depot for their products.
The location of their retail office and their warehouses would result in the interweaving of vehicles owned by the hardware store and their clients on both sides of the road to pick up construction supplies.
I need not mention the time that the trucks have to stay to load or unload their materials nor the number of these vehicles staying in the area for a specific time of the day to do business.
Last Sunday, since it was a weekend and the volume of vehicle is expected to be light, I passed the place coming from Highway Seno on my way to Cebu City going through Mabolo and then to Imus Avenue to visit my mother in the downtown area.
I was surprised to see metal railings that would serve as center islands starting from the corner of F. Gochan Street and Tres Borces Street where the main office and warehouses of the hardware store are located.
I don’t have an idea when the metal railings were put up, but when I saw them, I said to myself while driving that at long last the Cebu City Traffic Office (CCTO) has acted on the complaints of many motorists who pass by the area.
These motorists believe that the hardware store receives special treatment from the previous administration who turned a deaf ear to their complaints, much to their dismay.
Although it is not ideal to place a road divider in a constricted street, we could not blame the traffic office for putting up steel railings to serve as barriers.
Many of our motorists, especially the trucks that do business with the said hardware store, would not respect the double solid yellow lines in the middle of the road.
Either that or they are simply ignorant of what the sign represents owing to the reality that many drivers got their licenses from fixers.
Now that a solution is given to the traffic congestion in that part of the city near the boundary of Mandaue, when would the CCTO ease up the traffic problem in Bantal Road where vehicles are allowed to take a left turn on two solid yellow lines?
Although metal railings are already set up in a portion of the Bantal Road specifically in front of a mall, the road stretch that vehicles can freely make a turn on two solid yellow lines is still very long, and violations are rampant even with the presence of traffic enforcers.
Flagrant violation to traffic rules happen despite the presence and knowledge of authorities, and these violations are even aided by private security guards who would direct motorists to stop to give way to left-turning vehicles coming from their establishments.
The presence of several high-end subdivisions in Bantal area is enough reason to slow the flow of traffic, but it gets worse when vehicles are allowed to make a turn on the stretch with double yellow lines.
I am no traffic expert or educated in urban planning, but if motorists could not respect traffic rules through traffic signs, then it would be better that steel railings would be set up on roads where laws are not followed as a preventive measure and to get the job of educating our drivers done.
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