MIGEDC-JICA study Iloilo City’s ‘on-road’ parking

Parking on and off the road has imposed a big problem in traffic management in Iloilo City.

This was emphasized by Professor Lorena Padojinog, Consultant of the MIGEDC-JICA TWG or Metro Iloilo Guimaras Economic Development Council-Japan International Cooperation Agency, Transportation and Traffic Management Sector.

Prof. Padojinog explained that on-road parking is when vehicles park on the part or on the shoulder of the road; while off-road parking is done on a position or space not part of the road.

She noted that what presently happens on several streets in the City proper is that parking is done “on-road”, limiting the capacity of the road, and adding to the congestion of the road lanes and will result to traffic jams.

In response to this problem the MIGEDC-JICA Project Team has identified Quezon Street as a subject of study, Padojinog said stressing that the traffic experiment consist of initial surveys on off-road parking capacity and on-road parking demand. These surveys will give data on the volume of parking vehicles and the parking spaces available in this area.

The Quezon Street on-road parking experiment is on going, it was started January 28 and will continue until February 2, 2009. The activity is being conducted by the UPV Traffic Survey Team under the supervision of the JICA Expert Team for MIGEDC as part of the JICA Project on “Multi-stakeholder Transport Planning and Traffic Management Improvement in Metro Iloilo-Guimaras (MTMI-MIG) under the Capacity Enhancement Program for MIGEDC and BBRMCI.

The MIGEDC-JICA press report disclosed that the experiment is directed towards finding out the road capacity for parking spaces given the number of vehicles that park or could be parked along these street areas (Quezon Street) and probable measures that can be adopted to regulate parking on-road, if this mode is inevitable.

The data gathered could also recommend ways by which available off-road parking spaces can be optimally utilized. The findings of the experiment will likewise become the basis of a recommendation to the City Council for improved ways and means to ease where prevailing parking blocks vehicular movement, the MIGEDC-JICA press report disclosed.

Professor Padojinog and PIA 6 Regional Diector Janet Mesa also discussed the said activity during the recent PIA-Cable Television program, recently. (PIA 6/T.Villavert)