BACOLOD City – The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will help the city government formulate a traffic master plan.
A team of MMDA officers, expected to arrive this month, will evaluate the city’s traffic situation for about two weeks, according to Mayor Evelio Leonardia.
Bacolod has 92,827 motor vehicles registered in 2017 – 7,849 more than the 84,978 registered in 2016 – figures from the Land Transportation Office Region 6 showed.
The figure meant that the capital city of Negros Occidental accounted for 22.31 percent of the total 416,136 motor vehicles registered in Western Visayas last year.
“That is what I call good news, which is also bad news,” Leonardia said. “Good news because it shows that our people have the purchasing power (to buy vehicles) but bad news because this adds to the traffic volume.”
Across Negros Occidental, including this city, 169,739 motor vehicles were registered in 2017 – 40.79 percent of the total registration in all six provinces in the region.
Leonardia appealed for “a little understanding about our traffic situation.”
He said Bacolod “will be among the first few (local governments) in the (Philippines) to have a traffic master plan” if the initiative with the MMDA succeeds.
Streets get more congested when vehicles from north and south of Negros Occidental add to the almost 93,000 vehicles already plying the city, Bacolod Traffic Authority Office (BTAO) head Luisito Acebuche said in a separate interview.
Executive Assistant Rodel Parcon is helping the BTAO comply with MMDA requirements, Acebuche said.
Citing Parcon, Acebuche said the MMDA team is expected to arrive on the third week of July. “I will present to them, together with our mayor, the traffic situation of Bacolod.” (With reports from PNA/PN)
