‘… here’s hoping that the leadership of Davao City will look at moving people as a chance to make Davao a model for all other Philippine cities to emulate.’
I WAS in Davao City two days ago and was worried by what I experienced: traffic along the length and breadth of JP Laurel St. particularly in the Damosa-Lanang areas.
The traffic due to the heavy volume of vehicles was (is!) made worse by an intersection.
And then there’s SM Lanang and we all know how SM’s malls contribute to traffic everywhere they’re set up.
Traveling that section of JP Laurel to go from Abreeza to Dusit Residences took me close to two hours during rush hour; the same stretch took me less than 30 minutes at 5 a.m.
The solution is simple, di ba? Get people to leave for their business (work or school) before sunrise and get them to go home near midnight.
Ha-ha.
Actually, Davao City is in a position to get things right, learning from the mistakes that Metro Manila mayors have committed and continue to commit through the years. And one lesson we seem to never learn is this: traffic is all about moving people, and the more quickly you can find efficient ways to achieve this, the more quickly you can solve the traffic mess.
One way we seem to prefer to resort to is to widen existing roads. Which is not possible in some of the older parts of our towns and cities because they weren’t planned well and are tightly packed.
Another is to keep building more roads. Which is good when it opens up new land for development (should I write that as “development”?) but which is bad because it only encourages the culture of people owning private vehicles so they can get from point A to B better.
More people owning more vehicles using our existing roads is why our cities’ main thoroughfares are becoming huge parking spaces.
What I am hoping Davao City would do right is to plan for better mass rapid transit systems that would make owning a car a “lujo” or luxury. Why can’t Davao City plan its people moving systems along the lines of Singapore, where even non-residents are happy to take public transport (bus, MTR or taxi) because they are so efficient.
I think it’s not too late for this and here’s hoping that the leadership of Davao City will look at moving people as a chance to make Davao a model for all other Philippine cities to emulate.
