DAVAO CITY—This city has tapped the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to assess the traffic situation here and provide insights for an effective traffic management system.
The MMDA team arrived in Davao City on Monday to begin its 5-day assessment, “and consequently provide technical assistance to the Davao City Traffic and Transport Management Office [CTTMO],” the city information office said.
The assessment will help guide formulate a traffic management plan and a capacity-building training course for CTTMO personnel.
The training course aims to strengthen the traffic management system in the city and improve the day-to-day traffic conditions in metropolitan Davao.
The team composed of 15 personnel from three MMDA divisions (Traffic Planning and Design Division, Traffic Signal Operation and Maintenance Division, and Traffic Education Division) was headed by MMDA Traffic Engineering Center Director Engr. Neomie Recio.
The team’s study on the city’s traffic and transportation schemes will determine the gaps in design, technology, policy, and other aspects of traffic management.
From February 20 to 25, the MMDA team will gather data through a traffic count, road inventory survey, ocular inspection of existing traffic signal facilities as well as focus group discussions on the formulation of capacity-building training course which they intend to craft and propose to the local government by March, the information office said.
Recio said the city traffic system “is bound to get more complex and require an effective traffic management plan as Davao City continues to grow.” She said a thorough study of the current traffic situation in Davao City is vital “in determining whether the current traffic management system enforced by the CTTMO requires a complete overhaul or simply needs recalibration in policy, technology or design.”
“Some areas are really congested, especially in signal light intersections so, as I have said if there is traffic congestion in a place, it means that place is progressing because that is linked to development,” Recio said.
“That is why we need to find a way so we will craft a traffic management plan for Davao City so it will not become just like Manila where the problems are already there but we’re trying to solve them just now,” she added.
Traffic engineering, traffic enforcement and traffic education are the three central disciplines in traffic management that will be assessed in the 5-day program, she added.
“I requested MMDA to help us figure out what we have to do in Davao. So with that, whatever they find in their studies and their recommendations, we will adopt,” said CTTMO head Dionisio Abude.
Abude has recommended 10 areas with the most traffic congestion to be subjects for the MMDA-led study: Matina Crossing, Catalunan Grande, C.P. Garcia, Sandawa intersection, Quirino-Pichon, Quirino-Ponciano, San Pedro-Quirino, McArthur Highway-Maa, Panacan and Malagamot.