Traffic Management? Ridiculously lacking.

MAYOR EDWIN L. OLIVAREZ – PARANAQUE
MAYOR ANTONINO G. CALIXTO – PASAY
MMDA CHAIRMAN FRANCIS TOLENTINO
PNCC-SOMCO OIC RAMON M. BORROMEO

Dear Gentlemen;

I am addressing this letter to all of you in order for you to find a solution to the perennial problem besetting the residents who live along the West Service Road from Nichols to Bicutan. We, the residents are sick and tired of the perennial traffic left unattended and unresolved at all hours of the day, every day of the week. Students, employees and ordinary citizens suffer through MORE THAN AN HOUR of being stuck in traffic on a stretch of road that requires less than 30 minutes of drive time from one point to another. Even if people leave their homes two hours earlier and be useless twiddling their fingers while they’re stuck in traffic, they still get to schools and workplaces late, tired and totally irritated. We waste our time, our energy, our patience and our taxes on a stretch of road that’s not even more than a kilometer long.

This is addressed to all four of you because of the never ending finger pointing that goes on with regards to who is responsible for lessening the traffic problems in the said area. A portion of the West Service road belongs to Pasay and Paranaque. There are two exits that require the attention of the PNCC. The Bicutan/Better Living interchange needs immediate attention as well. Traffic is not moving. It takes students more than an hour and half to get out of the service road, sometimes even longer and it’s not even the morning rush hour anymore. It takes a commuter and hour and a half to take a jeep from Merville to SM Bicutan and it isn’t even lunch time. We do not think “that” is proper traffic management if it is even being managed at all.

On top of undisciplined jeeps that stop anywhere all the time, there are trucks on the service road during a supposed truck-ban time frame. There are diggings along the stretch of the service road that can be done at night instead of adding to the traffic during daytime. Better Living residents are not the only people who need to cross the intersection as well. Traffic rotation on the interchange should be equal and no special treatment be given to a specific location.

Until such time traffic improves on the West Service road, traffic on this stretch will always be blamed on the ineptness and ineffectiveness of your respective offices because no one wants to take responsibility and no one wants to resolve this problem. Residents of both Pasay City and Paranaque are directly negatively affected and basically, these are tax payers who expect better service from their respective local governments and government agencies involved with operations along the West Service Road and SLEX. It is time that your respective offices find a common ground for cooperation and mutual action to resolve this problem at the soonest possible time because the residents are already fed up with this traffic and no solution in sight.

Thank you very much for your prompt attention regarding this problem.