BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The lengthy, heavy traffic caused by the ongoing road rehabilitation projects here are causing huge fuel waste for commuters and lost time, which is supposed to be spent on business and government services, a provincial board member said Friday.
Wilson Salas, chairman of the Sangguniang Panlalawigan’s committee on general services, land use, and trade and commerce, said a liter of diesel fuel at P30 is wasted daily by each of an estimated 103,000 commuters passing from one traffic area to another along the national highway from Diadi to Sta. Fe towns in the province.
“If we will multiply this (P30 cost), it will give us more than P309 million worth of fuel, which are wasted daily. In a year, it will be more than P112 billion worth of fuel lost because of the traffic,” he said.
Salas also lamented the agony of public and private employees who are delayed from work because of poor traffic management along the road repair sections of the Maharlika Highway here.
P488 billion worth of grains that pass by Nueva Vizcaya and 36 tons of vegetable products transported daily from the Nueva Vizcaya Agricultural Terminal are also threatened by the volatile movement of market prices and their perishable condition.
“We are bothered by this because our constituents suffer daily. This will become a ‘Jurassic’ problem if not properly addressed, causing psychological, mental, economic and health problems,” he added.
Salas said he already called a dialogue with local traffic stakeholders to come up with effective schemes to reduce the hours in traffic being suffered by the commuters.
One of the recommendations, he said, was the establishment of barriers near choke points to prevent erring drivers from getting outside the road lane.
“The heavy traffic was also reduced because of this, but there are still recommendations to do and implement,” Salas added.
The board member said there is a need for the Land Transportation Office to train and deputize flagmen of project contractors who are “crudely trained” so they can properly enforce traffic rules and regulations.
Salas also called on the commuters to cooperate and comply with the regulations and schemes especially during peak traffic hours to avoid further complications of road traffic management.
“We are also mulling to consult with the public, especially those who have met accidents along the road repair projects in order to file a class suit if the project contractors will not help on this and shape up according to the public’s expectations,” he said.