When the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (Team) said that they will enforce the loading and unloading of passenger jeepneys only in designated terminals, common sense would tell us that they were referring to LEGAL terminals only.
Thus, it was surprising to learn about the complaints received by Team from netizens who vented their ire on Facebook, Twitter and other social media about the traffic congestion caused by passenger jeepneys loading and unloading in ILLEGAL terminals.
That Team chief, Glenn Antigua, had to post his explanation on the official Facebook page of the Mandaue City Public Information Office showed either a poor understanding, willful ignorance or just plain defiance of the traffic agency’s plan by the passenger jeepney drivers and by extension, their operators.
Team may share the blame for this misunderstanding, but the greater onus of the blame lies on the passenger jeepney drivers and operators who continue to set up illegal terminals that serve to further decongest Mandaue City’s mostly narrow streets.
But wait, there are some complaints from commuters who said they either had to walk or ride extra to get to their destination since a lot of these legal terminals are stationed in malls, which are understandably magnets for foot and commuter traffic.
Still, there is some sense and logic in Team’s plan to enforce the unloading and loading of passenger jeepneys in strategic designated points in the city where these terminals are usually set up.
It is the unpredictable and brazen tendencies of passenger jeepney drivers to unload and load passengers anywhere they please that is among the biggest contributors of traffic congestion in Mandaue City and anywhere in Metro Cebu.
When traffic officials remind passenger jeepney operators and drivers about this, they would give a thousand and one excuses why they do what they feel they have to do to deal with passengers whom they also blame for forcing them to unload and load in the most inopportune and grossly inconvenient time and area.
With car firms offering generous payment plans that enable the riding public to buy their own cars and make money off them by offering rides to commuters via the online car service app, Uber, the mass transport sector is now laying the blame on the motorists as being the primary cause of traffic congestion.
But as in every gargantuan problem, some small steps do matter, and the Team is doing what it believes to be a service by setting some sort of order in the streets with the unloading and loading of passenger jeepneys in clearly legal and designated terminals in order to reduce traffic congestion.
The cooperation of everyone, both commuters and passenger jeepney drivers, is of utmost urgency if everyone wants to breathe a little easier in their daily travels in the streets of Metro Cebu.