Pampanga city shuns Metro jam
CITY OF SAN FERNANDO— This Pampanga capital has been trying to avert Metro Manila-like traffic on national highways by developing secondary roads and strictly enforcing traffic rules, Mayor Edwin Santiago said.
He discussed the city’s traffic challenge on Monday as San Fernando prepared for the 15th year of its cityhood.
The Manila North Road (MacArthur Highway) traverses about 20 kilometers in San Fernando while the Jose Abad Santos Avenue (formerly the Gapan-San Fernando-Olongapo Road) spans less than 10 km in the city.
Traffic in these parts of the city has been heavier than usual in the last two to three years, with netizens likening the gridlock here to the so-called “carmageddon” on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa), the country’s busiest thoroughfare.
Santiago said vehicles from the Freeport Area of Bataan, Subic Bay Freeport, Bataan and Zambales, and Pampanga’s quarry sites pass through San Fernando from the west, converging at the already busy section leading to two shopping malls or to the toll gate of the North Luzon Expressway.
He said rising employment at the Angeles Industrial Park and Clark Freeport as well as booming residential villages in Barangay Telabastagan and Balite triggered traffic jams in the north.
Gov’t center
San Fernando also hosts the regional government center in Barangay Maimpis that contributes to a daytime population of around 1.1 million, which is three times the city’s total population of 285,912 residents in 35 barangays based on the May 2010 census.
“The solutions we have been undertaking with the Department of Public Works and Highways are [for] stricter enforcement of traffic rules, the widening of Jose Abad Santos Avenue and the development of alternative or secondary roads,” Santiago told reporters at a media briefing.
Motorists can skip the MacArthur Highway by taking the Friendship Road from Porac or Clark, heading to Barangay Lara and FVR Megadike and going down Barangay Del Rosario to reach Barangay Sindalan and Barangay Calulut or Mexico town.
Bike lane
The city government has encouraged biking to work by assigning bike lanes on Lazatin Boulevard.
A mass transit system is being planned for San Fernando, one of the four Philippine cities assisted by World Bank’s traffic management system program.
“We are trying to avoid being like Metro Manila,” Santiago said. “San Fernando continues to be a conservative city where people are still family-oriented.”
He said the city government was completing the review of the land-use plan with the aim of reserving 30 percent of the city’s land, totaling 6,774 hectares, for agriculture for food and securing water resources.
From generating an income of P78 million right after Mount Pinatubo’s 1991 eruptions, the city government’s revenue rose to P1 billion in 2015.
