Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) chairman Francis Tolentino has seen all types of road behavior – both on the part of motorists, commuters and traffic enforcers – which contribute to traffic woes. To restore order and discipline on the road, the agency is finally setting up a traffic school.
On Monday, Tolentino will lead the opening of the Institute of Traffic Management (ITM) which shall be the premiere educational institution for training and continuing education of all traffic management personnel, traffic law enforcers and traffic accident investigators of both local and national government agencies.
“There shall be no traffic personnel on the street who do not possess the competencies necessary to effectively perform the core functions of traffic management,” Tolentino said.
The institute will also cater to traffic violators and erring motorists who need to undergo reorientation and seminars on traffic rules.
The streets of Metro Manila have come to symbolize the horrors of congested roads, at times converting the stretch of EDSA and other major thoroughfares into parking lots with traffic moving at snail pace at the slightest traffic infraction, accident or vehicle breakdown.
There are undisciplined public utility vehicles and private motorists who blatantly disregard traffic signs and lights in their haste to reach their destination, brazenly violating traffic laws making traffic a social malaise affecting people’s productivity and the efficient delivery of goods and services in the country.
With the birth of the institute, Tolentino hopes to “hone the minds and hearts of enrollees to become a more disciplined motorists and well-rounded traffic personnel in every road and corner.”
Manila Bulletin
