SOON you can drive safely at night, thanks to Thomasian Arjay Tuazon.
A College of Fine Arts and Design graduate, Tuazon has conceived of a modular traffic cone that has white reflectors for night traffic. Tuazon, who drives to school, experienced accidents caused by troublesome traffic barriers and problematic road signals. Thus he decided to design improved traffic cones for his thesis.
According to Tuazon, night road accidents occur because the concrete road barriers are difficult to see. He said his designs are not only visible, but durable against varying climate and even the impact of car crashes.
“My project incorporates a sustainable design and is more visible, durable, practical, and adaptable in our weather,” Tuazon said. “The design I made for the cones are one-piece, but it is modular. It is a four-piece set so that when one piece is broken, it would be easier to replace it because only one piece will be fixed.”
The modular traffic cone, a two-in-one design, can also be a drum-type kind of road marking for directional purposes.
Guided by his thesis adviser Prof. Stephen Buñi, Tuazon researched at the Design Center of the Philippines, at the National Center for Transport Studies in University of the Philippines-Diliman, and also at the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA). Tuazon said he wanted to reduce the cost of making road objects.
“It should be suitable for mass production because the cost should be the first thing to be considered,” Tuazon said. “It would be better if we can recycle the cones’ other parts in order to have less wastage,” he added.
Tuazon’s design was patterned from the existing MMDA road barriers; he only made necessary improvements. The MMDA gave him a certification that his design was feasible and could be used for their future projects, he said. Tuazon’s design became one of the best studies in CFAD this year. Laurence John R. Morales and Marie Ghiselle V. Villofrente
