BAGUIO CITY – Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong announced that the team of traffic experts from the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) that earlier came to the city to conduct a scientific study on the prevailing traffic situation around the country’s undisputed Summer Capital will return September for the full blown conduct of the traffic study around the city.
The city chief executive claimed based on the assessment and evaluation of the MMDA traffic experts, July is not the appropriate time to gather data on the city’s traffic situation because classes in the private schools and the tertiary level have not yet resumed which does not provide the real data on the traffic situation.
He explained by September, classes in all levels shall have already resumed and it is the start of the influx of visitors and the real traffic data could be gathered and inputted into the MMDA’s traffic simulation software for processing and analysis towards the formulation of the necessary recommendations.
Part of the city’s problems on traffic, according to Magalong, is the alleged heavy volume of motor vehicles plying Abanao St. with a previous recording of over 60,000 daily, compared to other roads like Magsaysay Avenue where the volume of motor vehicles daily is more than 34,000, which calls for the diversion of some of the traffic in such roads to where there are lesser volumes of vehicles to ensure the smooth flow of traffic in the different parts of the city.
Earlier, the MMDA identified some 15 traffic choke points around the city which will be the subject of the upcoming study on the flow and volume of traffic for the application of the proposed scientific solution to be formulated by the MMDA’s traffic simulation software.
The MMDA traffic experts arrived in the city last July 10 and immediately conducted an initial assessment of the prevailing traffic situation around the city with the identification of some initial problems that will be subjected to validation in their return mission.
The city mayor stated part of the programmed activities to improve the traffic situation around the city is for the officials and employees of the local government’s traffic and transport management division, as well as the traffic auxiliaries, to undergo the necessary capacitation with the help of the MMDA for effective and efficient traffic management of the traffic in the city.
Magalong asserted there is always science behind the formulated solutions to the city’s situation the reason the city government tapped the services of traffic experts from the MMDA with their traffic simulation software to come out with recommendations applicable to the existing situation in the city for smoother traffic flow.
By Dexter A. See
Photo by: Armando M. Bolislis
