Still on traffic

It was almost 6 p.m. when I went to the public market the other day. As expected, it was rush hour as many office workers went to the market after office hours to buy some stuff for dinner.

Traffic was almost coming to a standstill at some points. However, it wasn't because there were so many people there. On closer look, I saw that the problem was that several food vendors had spread out their tables in areas where vehicles could have parked. The place was being turned into an al fresco diner at rush hour! To make matters worse, the whole activity had the blessings of the market superintendent. There, in front of the tables, even was a traffic aide. He was concerned with traffic stalling in the area he was "guarding" but he never bothered to clear up the market parking areas so that the vehicles would have a place to park.

"What's going on?" I asked him. "Well, sir, the food vendors are starting to put their tables in this area. They were given permission to do this," the traffic aide replied. He sounded confused. Well, he should be. Where in the world can you find a traffic aide who promotes traffic obstructions by allowing vendors to occupy the parking lot?

So, what parking spaces are left for non-vendors like me? Tricycle drivers have taken the law into their own hands and made their own terminal for Batinguel at the corner of Tiong Bazar. At the northern end of the market, multicab drivers have also taken over the parking areas there, converting it to their terminal for Sibulan.

If I remember right, the traffic ordinance of Dumaguete expressly prohibits the practice of public utility operators of converting public streets into their terminals. These operators and drivers are, by a city ordinance, supposed to have their own terminals situated in private lands.

The same law also provides that schools should provide parking inside their campuses. It seems, however, that some schools are openly defying this provision. They allow their students to park in the streets, which makes the roads narrower. Instead of enforcing the law, the city even bent over backwards by sending a team of engineers to a school to see how they could help construct a parking space inside the school.

Another thing is that the traffic enforcers are helpless whenever someone goes against the flow of traffic in a one-way road. Last Sunday, at 4 pm, a caucasian was driving a motorcycle heading north along Perdices St. At that time, traffic was still supposed to head from north to south. But the motorist passed a traffic aide who was standing at the corner of San Juan St-Perdices and he just looked calmly at the white motorist. What signal was he sending to the other motorists?

It would seem that there was no will at all to implement the provisions of this traffic ordinance.

If this new administration of Mayor Perdices would still not implement this law to the letter, the new city council should review this law and see which provisions need to be changed. Otherwise, the people will not have any respect for the government and its laws.

I was happy to hear Mayor Perdices promise during his oath-taking yesterday that he will shed off his being a very nice person and be stricter in dealing with the traffic problem, on this last term in office.

Let's see how traffic improves in Dumaguete from here on.*

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