Back to old traffic plan at Redemptorist

It's all systems go for today's restoration of the old traffic scheme at the vicinity of the Redemptorist Church.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama said the city councilors who voted against the move of the City Traffic Operations Management to reroute the traffic in the area would be in the vicinity very early today to see for themselves how the restoration would ensue.

Rama said the councilors should also see the restoration of the old traffic scheme so that they can take down their observations and recommend modifications if necessary. Aside from the councilors, CITOM personnel would also be stationed in significant points of entry in the area to assist motorists and man the flow of traffic.

Aside from this, streamers have been hanged in the area to announce the restoration of the old scheme. Rama said the traffic signs that were put up during the experimentation period of the one-way traffic have already been removed to avoid confusion on the part of the motorists.

During its session last week, the city council formally denied CITOM's request to fully implement the experimented re-routing scheme in the area. However, 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.

But Rama said both Leyson and Pe are expected to be presented today at the Redemptorist area.

In an executive session last week, CITOM submitted to the council its assessment of the extended experimentation period, which the council said did not necessarily reflect positive results.

CITOM explained 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.