Baguio, Pangasinan, La Union cooperate to fix holiday traffic

BAGUIO residents and visitors endure heavy traffic jams on Leonard Wood Road, which leads to the summer capital’s major tourist spots like the Wright and Mines View Parks and the presidential Mansion. RICHARD BALONGLONG /INQUIRER NORTHERN LUZON

BAGUIO CITY—Traffic policemen from the summer capital, Pangasinan and La Union are collaborating to ensure smooth traffic flow in northern Luzon during the Christmas and New Year holidays, the Baguio City government said in a statement.

Supt. Evelio Degay, chief of the city’s police traffic division, has established a road communication plan with his counterparts in towns traversed by the Tarlac-Pangasinan-La Union Expressway (TPLEx) to avoid gridlocks suffered by holiday tourists driving up to Baguio and the Ilocos provinces during the holidays last year, Mayor Mauricio Domogan said.

The Urdaneta City (Pangasinan) to Rosario (La Union) section of TPLEx is still under construction, but the expressway has cut down driving time from Metro Manila to Baguio to about four hours when the section exiting Urdaneta City was opened to traffic in December 2014.

But expressway operators did not anticipate the huge volume of TPLEx motorists who drove out of Metro Manila after Christmas last year. Traffic was at a standstill in many areas, including Kennon Road. Holiday motorists who managed to reach the city suffered more traffic jams in Baguio’s streets.

During a Dec. 9 news conference, Domogan said the city’s Traffic and Transportation Management Committee drew up a contingency plan that required counterpart police forces in Pangasinan and La Union to mobilize traffic managers in strategic portions of TPLEx, including the routes leading to Kennon Road and Marcos Highway.

Volunteer mechanics are also being tapped to assist stranded vehicles to free up obstructions on the road up to Baguio, he said.

Degay, during a briefing he gave the city council, said the traffic collaboration plan would be enforced from Dec. 24 to 27 and from Dec. 30 to Jan. 3, 2016, which are the dates when the most number of motorists are expected to drive up to Baguio and leave the city.

Domogan said the plan also required the conversion of certain streets into temporary one-way traffic routes, particularly roads that draw tourists to Mines View Park.

The police designated several roads leading to downtown Baguio as one-way inbound routes, such as Kisad Road that is near Burnham Park.

Motorists driving up Kennon Road, who would head to the Philippine Military Academy, Camp John Hay and the Baguio Country Club, are advised to take the bypass road leading to Loakan Road.

Appropriate traffic signs and rerouting instructions would be put up in Baguio as well as in neighboring towns, the city government statement said.  Vincent Cabreza, Inquirer Northern Luzon