ON THE TRAFFIC SITUATION IN THE AREAS OF LOS BAOS AND CALAMBA

One of my weekly sacrifices is going back and forth to Manila to visit my daughter who
is in college. At best, the traffic build up begins at the junction area (the intersection at Jollibee
Los Baos going to Manila and going to UPLB), will continue up to Calamba, will experience
slight improvement at the SLEX and will resume in upon approaching the vicinity of Metro
Manila.
On worst weekends (long weekends, most especially), the traffic situation is so bad that it
begins right after South supermarket in the area of Maahas and will last for the whole journey.
As an engineer by profession, I keep on wondering why this should happen. Especially
since I can see that there are a lot of traffic enforcers in the area. However, I noticed that
although the presence of traffic enforcers are visible, a lot of undisciplined motorists keep on
inching their way through the traffic overtaking left and right, further aggravating the traffic
situation.
Also, one of the things that I noticed while looking outside the bus as it moves is that the
houses and other infrastructures are already right beside the roads which give no more room for
road widening. Thus, the volume of traffic from the wide roads of the SLEX combined with the
equally wide roads of the Laguna area, upon reaching a bottleneck at Los Baos and Calamba,
will surely end into every traffic enforcers nightmare.
I personally believe that the traffic situation is taking its toll not only on the motorists
who are frequenting these roads but the economy of the province of Laguna as well. Being the
major thoroughfare that connects Laguna and other southernmost areas to Manila, commerce is
highly affected by the traffic situation in these areas. For example, fresh vegetables and fruits
from Majayjay and other neighboring areas will have to pass through this bottleneck and will
have to suffer much loss in their produce during this period. Also, tourists who may want to visit
the famous Pagsanjan falls and other tourist destinations in Laguna may want to think twice
about going through Los Baos and Calamba and would rather go to Batangas because the traffic
situation is lighter there.
Several studies have already been conducted as to how this situation can be improved.
One of which is a proposed expressway that will start at SLEX Extension (Calamba Exit) and

will traverse along Laguna de Bay, ending up at the connecting national road at Bay, Laguna.
The construction of the four-lane 15.5-kilometre-long (9.6 mi) expressway will cost an
estimated PHP5.9 billion. When constructed, it is expected to ease the traffic in the Calamba-Los
Baos area, particularly along National Road.
However, I personally doubt the feasibility of this project. The proposed area wherein this
highway will traverse, especially in the area of Bay, Laguna is prone to flooding. They will have
to allocate more budget to make sure that the said highway can be utilized and will not be
submerged in flood water. If the local government have other plans of giving solution to this
problem, they should implement it now before the situation worsen even more.