The sea as an alternative mass transport route

A recent invitation to a pre-holiday travel to Bohol province gave me an opportunity to toy with the idea of an alternative public transportation to lessen the congestion of the streets in Metro Cebu brought about by the increasing number of vehicles and the non-expansion of roads.

Last Saturday afternoon I was among the thousands of travelers who ventured to the island province of Bohol to take a respite from the daily work grind together with Boholanos working here who went home to their province to pay homage to their departed loved ones on All Souls’ Day.

On my way to the port area, I took a taxi and left the house at 2:30 p.m. and arrived at the ticketing office of the vessel an hour and 20 minutes later because of heavy traffic at Hernan Cortes Street.

The slow movement of traffic was attributed to the volume of vehicles traveling on that direction and there was not even a vehicular breakdown or road accident.

I took the fast craft that was scheduled to depart at 6:45 p.m., and the vessel arrived at the port of Tubigon exactly an hour after. If not for the few minutes delay in the departure, I could have arrived at my destination before 8 p.m.

While already rested at the house of my host, I compared how quick it was for me to arrive in Bohol and how slow the taxi was in bringing me to the port from my home in Mandaue City.

The reality is that it took me 20 minutes longer to travel less than eight kilometers by land than by cruising to the neighboring island province of Bohol.
Obviously the reason for the fast travel using the sea is that there is no traffic. This brought me to the general conclusion that I would rather live in Tubigon than to move around Metro Cebu where traffic is heavy at any time of the day.

The time consumed in traveling to Tubigon town is also the same time it would take me to go home from the downtown area where I work as a college professor to my home in A.S. Fortuna Mandaue City.

When it is very slow to move around Cebu and Mandaue cities, it is even worse if you go beyond Mandaue in the north and Talisay in the south because our highways are as crammed as the internal road networks in Metro Cebu.

If it is faster to travel by water, why not consider a mass transport system using sea vessel to move commuters whose destination is beyond Talisay in the south and Mandaue in the north?

This kind of transport system is already proven effective for commuters traveling from Cebu City to Lapu-Lapu City judging from the queue of passengers trying to get a ticket, making travel by ferry boats the preferred mode of transport.

The sea mass transport system can establish its terminal in any part of the stretch in the port area of Cebu City and could drop off passengers in the town wharves starting from Minglanilla and as far as Carcar City in the south as well as the town of Consolacion up to Danao City in the north.

Although, there are pros and cons in using the sea for public transport in Metro Cebu, I believe this is worth looking into because traffic congestion is already at its alarming state.

So far I have not seen an end to the increasing sales of motor vehicles and the non expansion of road networks.