One huge challenge this month, when the city is teeming with people including visitors, is the traffic as commuters have to endure hours of travel time which takes just a couple of minutes during ordinary days.
Although traffic building up is worsening by the day, this time it is compounded by the throng of people from other areas who want to witness and even join the festivities.
Compounding the problem is the erratic weather as what was witnessed by many over the weekend when venues of key events of the festival were flooded that resulted in commuters getting stranded.
Although there are plans that the city government is implementing to solve the traffic gridlock like the High Priority Bus System – it has initially set aside P100 million to start the project – organizers of the festival as well as similar events must rethink the way they hold events.
One suggestion is for organizers to take advantage of new venues – the Davao City – University of the Philippines sports complex is one – and use these not only to ensure that events do not contribute to traffic, but also to avoid getting people who want to enjoy the events get frustrated because of the rains.
The very first step to do this is to put in place a very reliable and comprehensive transport system that will help the people go to the venues and come home without the hassles similar to what happened during the weekend.
Since the bus system has yet to take off, for a start, organizers can tap bus companies to temporarily service the routes.
This will not only make people get satisfied for spending their hard-earned money just so they can enjoy, this will also result in new economic areas that can be built slowly. And this idea will not empty the savings accounts of those organizing the events.
