Cebu City Launches Modernized Traffic System

Cebu City hopes Cebuanos experience better traffic flow in the city as the local government launches the first phase of the “modernize traffic system project.”

18 intersections in various parts of the city now have digital timers for traffic lights, which will help motorists in anticipating traffic situations and help in keeping the smooth flow of traffic throughout the city.

Apart from improved traffic lights, a digital system for overall traffic management is being developed, which includes systems for license plate recognition, and vehicle detection; along with modern traffic signal controllers, and speed cameras.

This new solution to the traffic woes of Cebu City will use an underground fiber-optic network in monitoring the various main roads and streets of the city by means of a new city command center that will be built specifically for the management of the new digital system.

All of the upgrades to the traffic system aims to update the 30-year old Sydney Coordinated Adaptive Traffic System (SCATS), a real-time system developed in New South Wales, Australia, which adjusts “signal timings throughout the system in response to variation in traffic demand and system capacity wherein road sensors that detected the volume of vehicles at intersections,” according to the Cebu City Tansport Office, to manage traffic flow.

The new traffic light system will also be made to blend seamlessly as part of the Mega Cebu integrated intermodal transport system.

Since 2019, Cebu City has allotted P500 million for the improvement of traffic problems, as more around 80 stop lights within the city suffered malfunctions that hampered city-wide traffic management.

An additional P238.56 million from the city’s 2020 annual budget was allocated for the said project. (GFB)