BACOLOD CITY — A team from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is expected to arrive here this month to help assess the city’s traffic situation and formulate a local traffic master plan.
Mayor Evelio Leonardia said Tuesday MMDA personnel will conduct the study and evaluation for about two weeks.
“They will study the traffic flow (and other factors) for us to come up with a traffic master plan for Bacolod City. When we do that, we will be among the first few in the (country) to have a traffic master plan,” Leonardia added.
Figures from the Land Transportation Office 6 (Western Visayas) showed that Bacolod has 92,827 motor vehicles registered in 2017, or 7,849 more than the 84,978 registered in 2016.
“That is what I call good news, which is also bad news. Good news because it shows that our people have the purchasing power, but bad news because it adds to the traffic volume,” Leonardia said.
Bacolod City alone accounts for 22.31 percent of the total 416,136 motor vehicles registered in the region last year.
In Negros Occidental, including Bacolod City, 169,739 motor vehicles were registered in 2017, comprising 40.79 percent of the total registration among all the six provinces in Western Visayas. “So please, a little understanding about our traffic situation,” the mayor appealed.
Supt. Luisito Acebuche, head of the Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO), said in a separate interview, the city streets will get even more crowded once vehicles from the north and the south of the province are added to the almost 93,000 vehicles already plying Bacolod.
Acebuche, who welcomed the assistance from the MMDA, added that with Executive Assistant Rodel Parcon, the BTAO is complying with the requirements of the MMDA.
“We hope that by the third week of July, they will come here, according to Mr. Parcon,” Acebuche said. “Once they arrive, I will present to them, together with our mayor, the traffic situation of Bacolod.” (Nanette Guadalquiver/PNA)
