Franchise of the passenger tricycle caught being in a prohibited zone will definitely be revoked.

The stern warning from City Hall came to address mounting complaints about abusive tricycle drivers.

Clamping zones, no-parking zones, loading-unloading zones have been designated by the City Traffic Management Office (CTMO) to solve the traffic problem in the city and to pre-empt worse situations in choke areas.

However, a number of tricycle drivers blatantly defied the traffic signs.

Passenger tricycles are still caught being parked in areas with no-parking signs, clamping zone signs, and being caught staying longer than necessary in areas designated for loading and unloading passengers.

Franchises of tricycles with erring drivers will no longer be renewed or be revoked.

Penalties for violation of traffic rules will also be strictly imposed even on private vehicles.

The CTMO said it has already given ample leeway to drivers of both public utility vehicles and private vehicles and since violations continue, the ordinances on traffic regulations will soon be strictly implemented.

The entrance of Island City Mall is one of the problem areas where even with the space provided for tricycles picking up passengers, still many tricycles would choose not to queue but occupy the portion of the street intended for running vehicles.

This poses danger to motorists, aside from blocking people coming in and out of the mall.

Slow-moving tricycles often cause the traffic to drag as other vehicles that could go faster had to follow behind them, especially in no-overtaking portions of the national highways.

In two-lane portions of the national highway, some tricycles would position in the middle of the two lanes which prevent faster moving vehicles to overtake.

On the other hand, there are still complaints about tricycle drivers overcharging their passengers, despite the penalties imposed on them.

Meanwhile, penalties for jay-walking will soon follow as undisciplined pedestrians had also been found to be contributors to the traffic chokes.

The CTMO said they still have to install reflectors on the streets to guide both the pedestrians and motorists.

All the new traffic lights with countdown timers are now operating, but some motorists complained of the long wait for the green light.

This was, however, been explained that it is intended to ease traffic choke areas.

The CTMO believes that the countdown timers help ease traffic flow as they give the motorists the idea how much time is left “before the light changes”.

It also gives hints to the pedestrians how much time left for them to cross the roads.