The City Traffic Management Office (CTMO) earned commendations for the one-way loop system around Tagbilaran’s downtown commercial district, but faces the challenge of clearing areas that remain choke points.
This came as City Councilor Jonas Cacho raised a concern on the choke points of traffic flow around the City Square which he attributed to the conversion of a portion of its parking space into terminals of multi-cabs plying specific routes.
Cacho pointed out that reserving the supposed parking space of City Square for private vehicles might help in easing the crowd in preventing car owners to be to park along the road for lack of space.
He suggested that the CTMO might consider incorporating this in the ongoing dry run of the one-way loop system implemented around the commercial district at downtown area from the J.S. Torralba St. portion of the Plaza Rizal rotunda onwards to CPG Avenue up to the intersection at Visarra St., turning right towards Gallares St. up to the intersection at the side of St. Joseph Cathedral.
Cacho also suggested that the terminals of the multicabs be transferred to its previous location at Boholand area along CPG East Avenue.
As reaction, CTMO Head Tony Samante said he would study the suggestion of Cacho.
Samante appeared before the Sangguniang Panlungsod during the regular session last Friday to report on the result of the dry run of the one-way loop system.
Samante also said 80 percent of the commuting public and motorists have been satisfied with the implementation of the one-way loop system at the commercial district as an effective means to ease traffic congestion.
On the other hand, Tagbilaran City Administrator Leonides Borja said that the city government plans to enforce a color coding system for tricycles and prohibiting them from passing along national highways.
The city administrator said this is the Plan B if the one-way loop system, now on experimental stage, would prove futile in addressing traffic jam.
In the plan B, the tricycles will be color-coded and would only be allowed to ply along barangay roads as it had been noticed that tricycles often cause clogging at choke points of the streets.
This is aside from the fact that they are not actually permitted by the national law to traverse national highways and that they can only be tolerated by local government units if the areas have no other modes of transportation.
They are only allowed along barangay roads, considering that their permits are issued by the local government unit.
Moreover, the city administrator explained that there are 3,000 tricycles operating around the city and most of them are concentrated along main roads where they pick up passengers and disrupt the traffic flow.
However, City Mayor John Geesnell Yap said it is not yet time to ban the tricycles along national highways.