thewheelsonthebuses-blog

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Council member Nora Velasco on the improvement of the situation of traffic in Gov Pack Rd.

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The Wheels on the Busses

Vicinity: Governor Pack Road, Baguio City

The Situation: Governor Pack Road is a major road in Baguio City in the Philippines. It connects the Aspiras-Palispis Highway (formerly Marcos Highway) and Session Road in the city’s downtown core. Baguio City National High School, and the University of the Cordilleras are located along the road along with the bus terminals of Victory Liner, Genesis, Partas, Dalin, Amianan Trans and others more. Being one of the vital roads in Baguio City, the road itself must be accommodating to the tourists that visit and to the residents as well, but having the road be infamous for its heavy traffic, this was not always the case.

These are some of the causes of the said traffic:

1.      The inconvenient u-turn maneuver of busses when parking

When busses make their u-turns before or after parking, it takes a long time because of the busses’ long length. This results in a line of cars pausing and waiting before the bus makes a full u-turn. Sometimes, impatient drivers also take over the left side of the lane, preventing the bus to pass through leading to a more serious problem. A new maneuvering system was recently proposed on January 1 2017 hoping that this would be resolved, but the problem still exists and the scheme is still being tested up until this day

2.      The illegal parking of cars on bus parking slots

When busses await their calling times from another docking station, cars occupy the parking space where the busses are supposed to be. This makes it harder for incoming busses to park and sometimes result to the delay of departure times aside from the traffic the bus might cause for the reason of waiting the car to exit the slot. A strict rule on this issue was implemented back in 2015, but officials are starting to become less strict with this and thus continue becoming a problem.

3.      The lack of adequate loading and unloading stations for taxis within the bus terminal.

Dropping off passengers in the terminal becomes more of a problem because of the two situations stated above. As the road becomes congested of the vehicles in the vicinity, the harder it is for taxis to find a docking station.

Suggested solutions:

1.     New Parking Implementation 2.     Officials becoming more strict about illegal parking 3.     Placing more docking stations for taxis and other vehicles

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To discourage stubborn drivers from illegal parking, the loading and unloading station posts are placed on the parking slots themselves, but as you can see this may not be the best way to solve the problem because not only does the station limit a few vehicles to drop by, it narrows the road as well.

As Council Member Velasco said, a way to solve the traffic problem is to have more disciplined drivers. 

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This is a video of Governor Pack Road at noon in front of one loading/unloading station. Hazarding can also be considered a problem since buses may need to enter or exit their parking slots. The road can become too narrow for a two way road when not done right.

Cars patiently await for a bus to make a u-turn before they can enter Session Road or Luneta Hill.

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Council Member Nora Velasco of Governor Pack Road on the issue of traffic on the vicinity.

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The location of Governor Pack Road, Baguio City. The second picture shows the bus terminal where the traffic issues in this blog take place.

Taken from Google Maps

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Here’s a photo that shows traffic caused by the u-turn of a bus. A series of cars queue up waiting for the road to clear.

Picture taken on February 15, 2017

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Unloading/Loading of taxis in the middle of the road opposes a huge problem to traffic.

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The traffic problem in Gov Pack Rd. shares similarities to the situation in Manila, here are some more solutions that can help reduce traffic here in Baguio City

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“Additional pedestrian and vehicle entrances along Gov. Pack Road will be provided by the mall management in order to help decongest traffic along Session Road, the only gateway to the giant mall in the city.”

Serving as a road connecting Session Road to other major roads in the city, the decongestion that will be of Session Road will also decongest the traffic in Gov. Pack Road. 

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On january 9, 2012, road repair and widening was already made in Gov. Pack Road. This suggests that a solution of another road widening may not see the light of day anytime soon

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Governor Pack Road early morning before new parking implementation

taken from http://picssr.com/photos/53403055@N02?nsid=53403055@N02

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An experimental traffic scheme implemented on Jan 1, 2017 in hope of reducing traffic in Gov. Pack Rd. Baguio City.

[thewheelsonthebuses-blog]

The Wheels on the Busses

Vicinity: Governor Pack Road, Baguio City

The Situation: Governor Pack Road is a major road in Baguio City in the Philippines. It connects the Aspiras-Palispis Highway (formerly Marcos Highway) and Session Road in the city's downtown core. Baguio City National High School, and the University of the Cordilleras are located along the road along with the bus terminals of Victory Liner, Genesis, Partas, Dalin, Amianan Trans and others more. Being one of the vital roads in Baguio City, the road itself must be accommodating to the tourists that visit and to the residents as well, but having the road be infamous for its heavy traffic, this was not always the case.

These are some of the causes of the said traffic:

1.      The inconvenient u-turn maneuver of busses when parking

When busses make their u-turns before or after parking, it takes a long time because of the busses’ long length. This results in a line of cars pausing and waiting before the bus makes a full u-turn. Sometimes, impatient drivers also take over the left side of the lane, preventing the bus to pass through leading to a more serious problem. A new maneuvering system was recently proposed on January 1 2017 hoping that this would be resolved, but the problem still exists and the scheme is still being tested up until this day

2.      The illegal parking of cars on bus parking slots

When busses await their calling times from another docking station, cars occupy the parking space where the busses are supposed to be. This makes it harder for incoming busses to park and sometimes result to the delay of departure times aside from the traffic the bus might cause for the reason of waiting the car to exit the slot. A strict rule on this issue was implemented back in 2015, but officials are starting to become less strict with this and thus continue becoming a problem.

3.      The lack of adequate loading and unloading stations for taxis within the bus terminal.

Dropping off passengers in the terminal becomes more of a problem because of the two situations stated above. As the road becomes congested of the vehicles in the vicinity, the harder it is for taxis to find a docking station.

Suggested solutions:

1.     New Parking Implementation 2.     Officials becoming more strict about illegal parking 3.     Placing more docking stations for taxis and other vehicles

[thewheelsonthebuses-blog]

Governor Pack Road lacks adequate docking stations for taxis and the drivers of these vehicles often stop on the middle of the road just to unload\load passengers. This in turn results to the heavy traffic we experience in the area.