Thursday, April 10, 2014

Mayor Rivera OK’s first phase of transport scheme

GENERAL SANTOS CITY (20 March 2014) - City Mayor Ronnel Rivera formally started the first phase of the implementation of the city transport scheme Monday (March 17).

During the first phase, teams from the League of Cities of the Philippines (LCP), GenSan's Task Force Transportation and hired surveyors will implement a "traffic count" to determine the number of plying vehicles in the city.

Glenville Gonzales, assistant department head of the City Administrator's Office, said that the figures will be used by the LCP as preliminary data for analysis and interpretation to have a scientific basis for the transport master plan.

The systematic approach was specifically ordered by Mayor Rivera so that the transport plan as well as the city's other traffic system plans will be based on scientific data and studies, not on guess work.  

"We need that. We can’t just craft a transport system without being backed by scientific studies," Gonzales said.

The composite team doing the traffic count is composed of more or less 110 personnel, divided and designated into eighteen different intersections and main lanes of the city.

These lanes include the four entry points of GenSan (Apopong, Bawing, Tinagacan, Buayan), Upper Silway Bridge, Lower Silway Rivera, Catolico-RTC NLSA, Catolico-Tiongson St., National Highway-Leon Llido St., Aparente-Yumang, Aparente-Salazar, Pendatun-Osmena, Roxas-Osmena., Pedro Acharon-Bulaong, PhilAm-Makar Siguel Road, Aparente-Nunez, San Pedro St.-National Highway Lagao, and Pan Phil Highway-National Highway.

The traffic count will be conducted 24/7 for one week to monitor every plying vehicle -- both public utility vehicles (PUVs) and private vehicles.

Bicycles and trucks will also be counted.

The traffic volume or the number of passengers riding the public transport vehicles from point of origin to destination will also be tallied.

A specialized gadget for traffic volume assessment called "transit wand" will be used by the team for the entire duration of the traffic count to ensure the margin of error will be minimized.

For the analysis of data up to the creation of the transport scheme, the LCP will coordinate with the city government team composed of Gonzales, Engr. Teodorico Dumagan, City Councilor Arturo Cloma, and engineers from the Office of the Building Official with Mayor Rivera himself as overall chairman.

Consultants from the University of the Philippines National Center for Transportation Studies will also assist in designing GenSan's transport plan.

Four workshops will be conducted to discuss the data that were extracted from their studies.

The GenSan transportation scheme is free and funded by the World Bank through the CDS Council with the LCP as the implementing agent. (GENSAN INFO OFFICE/Ian John M. Lagare)

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