It’s going to get worse before it gets better.
This is going to be the state of our traffic in Dumaguete City in the coming days as the Department of Public Works and Highways will begin repairing the “Karaang Taytayan” (old bridge) very soon. With the closure of this bridge, which could take several months, traffic will be squeezed into Real St, Canday-ong road and even up to the Taclobo spillway.
This is one bitter pill that we must swallow. Our bridge needs to be repaired to prepare it for the challenges of bigger and heavier vehicles in the years to come.
Thankfully, the City is planning to also decongest our streets by transferring City Hall to barangay Bajumpandan. This move will surely get a lot of vehicles out of the City’s commercial area and open the rural areas to more commercial opportunities.
The traffic situation in Dumaguete is indicative of the City’s economic condition. All the cars and motorcycles that are hogging the roads and parking spaces mean that people in Dumaguete could afford to buy them, thanks to a robust economy. The business sector has estimated that Dumaguete City is growing at a rate of 30 percent every year. Comparing it to its mother province of Negros Oriental, Dumaguete seems like it’s not part of the Province, which has a much lower growth rate.
Of course, our City roads can hardly keep up with the growth in the number of vehicles. Our City was also designed to host less than 100,000 people. Now, we have about 150,000 during nighttime and close to 400,000 at daytime. Something’s gotta give.
Traffic is not a problem, it is a situation. It being a situation, we can make adjustments to make it easier on ourselves. Remember there are things out there that we can’t control. The width of our roads is one of them. We have to be the one to adjust.
We can control our driving habits and our attitude to our traffic situation. It would help immeasurably if all drivers who would dare drive our roads take an extra ounce of care and cool-headedness.
We’re still in much better shape than Cebu or Manila. Everything in Dumaguete may have been only five minutes away. Now, it might be 10 or 15. Still paradise, compared to Makati traffic, or the two hours it takes you to travel the 40 kilometers from Cebu City to Carcar.
So relax and stretch your patience to the max next time you drive. You’re in the City of Gentle People, after all.
