One-way traffic scheme at Redemptorist junked

The traffic at the vicinity of the Redemptorist Church will be restored to its original scheme after the city council yesterday denied the request of the City Traffic Operations to fully implement the re-routing scheme in the area.

The city council also decided that the original traffic scheme will have to be restored Wednesday next week, June 29, 2005, after a massive information dissemination will be undertaken.

Councilor Sylvian "Jack" Jakosalem who called for the restoration of the original scheme and who, himself, is a radio announcer, assured the council he will seek help from the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster sa Pilipinas to disseminate the development for free.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama suggested that tarpaulins announcing the restoration of the scheme be put up in places where people gather to immediately disseminate the news. But the council's decision was not a consensus decision because Councilor Gabrielle Leyson opted to abstain from voting while Councilor Augustus Pe Jr. disagreed with the same.

During the executive session last Monday, CITOM submitted to the council its assessment of the extended experimentation period, which the council said did not necessarily reflect positive results. CITOM said that the main factor that affected the traffic flow is the inadequacy of off-street parking spaces for service vehicles of students enrolled in schools surrounding the Redemptorist Church.

CITOM also said that on-street parking of vehicles along Juana Osmeña Street creates a bottleneck, which suppresses traffic flow along Aboitiz Street, which in turn explains the clogging of vehicles in the immediate vicinity of the Redemptorist Church.

Due to double parking along the road fronting the Sacred Heart School for Boys, a similar traffic situation can also be observed along General Maxilom Avenue. This would also result to the accumulation of long queue of vehicles in the same road that would even reach beyond General Maxilom Avenue.

The same assessment report also says that pedestrians are having a hard time crossing the street in General Maxilom Avenue due to the new phasing of the traffic signal system at the junctions of Juana Osmeña and Gotianuy Streets.

CITOM even suggested that traffic police personnel be deployed along Juana Osmeña Street prior to class dismissal of schools in the area to discourage or prevent inadvertent parking of vehicles along the streets.

Councilor Edgardo Labella earlier said that the experimental period should no longer be extended or else CITOM would need a council resolution to do the same, as mandated by law. Meanwhile, Councilor Joy Pesquera earlier labeled the implementation of the scheme as illegal after the experimentation commenced without approval from the council.