Asked what was the main cause of traffic congestion in Cebu City, the new Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) executive director Victor Caindec focused on wrong-headed attitudes.
“People being indifferent and callous. Discipline is a virtue and we have lost that on our roads,” he told Cebu Daily News in his first Q-A interview.
His answer dispels any notion that a magic wand or a breakthrough device can solve the worsening road congestion.
Caindec has been in the saddle less than a month. Right away, he’s being tested in the most hectic time of the year – the Christmas, New Year holiday and Sinulog in January.
Several Citom experiments are in play. Railings for no-left turns are up in the BanTal corridor with new areas declared on F. Ramos Street.
What’s also noticeable is the visibility of Citom enforcers on the streets. But even Citom knows their numbers are sorely inadequate and undermined by unfinished road “improvement” projects in Mandaue and Cebu City that have created detours and chokepoints.
Blood pressures are on the rise as traffic returns to Christmas shopping-frenzy levels with the start of the Fiesta Señor and launch of the Sinulog Festival this week.
It’s an inevitable pressure.
Roads around the Basilica Minore del Sto. Niño are virtual no-car entry zones with barriers put up. Yet people keep streaming into the Pilgrim Center for each of the eleven daily novena masses and pack the complex.
The knots are not just in downtown Cebu city , but appear across boundaries in Mandaue, Lapu-Lapu and Talisay cities.
The surge of visitors and locals in Cebu City should be a happy problem, providing more economic activity, raising the profile of Cebu as a tourist destination, and welcoming home those who value a return to roots, spiritual and for family bonding.
Now if only the surge, which comes with more vehicles on the road, doesn’t have to strangle the life out of this special time of year for Cebuanos.
Caindec, a private businessman with no formal traffic management training, was bold enough to take the challenge of dealing with what Mayor Michael Rama calls “crisis mode” traffic.
Much is expected of him, only because the problem is so grave. But Caindec is not an overnight solution. It seems just right to give him room to try different strategies and then give maximum feedback on which ones are working.
We all have to brace for terrible traffic congestion in the days leading up to the solemn foot procession of the Sto. Niño on Jan. 17 and the Sinulog Grand Parade on Jan. 18 .
Dealing with it starts with showing more patience, and self-discipline on the road, and following traffic rules that Caindec has to guarantee are enforced without fear or favor. Pit Senyor!
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
