QC councilors ask for longer work hours for traffic enforcers during Yuletide season
by Chito ChavezWith the traffic congestion expected to worsen further this Yuletide Season, Quezon City officials have asked local traffic authorities to add two hours per shift to the schedules of the city’s traffic field enforcers to help lessen public inconvenience.
(JIM GUIAO PUNZALAN / MANILA BULLETIN FILE PHOTO)
First District Councilor Victor Ferrer Jr. has called for traffic enforcers to be on the streets at 4 a.m. to 1 a.m. the following day as motorists and pedestrians are expected to be on the road for longer hours this Holiday Season.
Currently, traffic enforcers in the city are working the 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. first shift and the 2 p.m. to 10 p.m. second shift.
Ferrer said that there were previous calls for the city’s Department of Order and Public Safety (DPOS) and the MMDA to include an additional eight-hour work period to minimize road accidents at dawn.
However, traffic authorities said the move would entail extra expenses in the form of regular pay and night differential salary.
Aside from the additional working hours, Ferrer wants more traffic enforcers dispatched near the vicinities of shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, entertainment centers and known crowded places during the Christmas season.
For several weeks, Ferrer and Councilor Allan Francisco have met to discuss plans on how to ease traffic during the Yuletide rush.
The emergency meetings were deemed urgent after the councilors received mounting complaints regarding the city’s traffic woes.
“One family complained that they had to leave their house in Project 8 at 7 am to ensure that they won’t be late for their 1 pm domestic flight. True enough they arrived at the airport at 11 am,’’ Ferrer said.
Ferrer said the public had complained that a five hour lead time from Quezon City to the airport area in Paranaque City is simply “tiring and very exhausting’’.
He also urged the public to plan their trips ahead of time and if possible avoid known shopping and entertainment destinations especially during critical and peak hours to make traffic more manageable.
The traffic prone and critical sites in the city during the Holiday Season include Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA)-North Avenue where S.M. North and Trinoma are located; the portion of Cubao, Quezon City from Aurora Blvd. to P. Tuazon near the Araneta Center; the intersection of EDSA-Ortigas Ave. near Ortigas Center and the Balintawak area including the vicinity of Cloverleaf and Camachile the road that leads to the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX).
The councilors appealed to the public for their patience and understanding as the traffic enforcers are initiating moves to bring the traffic woes in the metropolis more manageable.
In addition to the fielding of additional enforcers, Ferrer asked the contractors of underground utilities and other government projects to comply with the temporary suspension of excavation order in the metropolis this Holiday season.
In the past the MMDA had apprehended the working personnel, confiscated the equipment and imposed fines ranging from P1, 000 to P20, 000 to defiant contractors not included in the exempted list.