MALOU GUANZON APALISOK
With the way partisan politics is creeping up on efforts to build a Bus Rapid Transit BRT, we may as well kiss any mass transit system goodbye under the Duterte administration.
The alternative Light Rail Transit LRT is still in the drawing board and by Presidential Assistant for the Visayas’ own admission the system can’t be done in 10 to 15 years.
A mass transit system for Metropolitan Cebu is more than welcome news but if the needed road spaces are not available, the solution we’re looking at might just become our worst nightmare.
That’s my pedestrian take on the BRT.
The ongoing construction of the underpass in the intersection of F. Llamas and Natalio Bacalso Avenue in barangay Mambaling best illustrates this scenario.
The daily traffic congestion along this major intersection has also choked traffic in Quiot, Pardo, Bulacao and Labangon.
Because motorists and passengers would rather avoid the jammed intersection, they take the Cebu South Coastal Road.
As a consequence, the volume of vehicles passing through CSCR has increased making traffic more congested during peak hours.
A spike in the number of traffic accidents occurring these past few months has also been noted, maybe because of the tendency of drivers to speed up when passing through this major thoroughfare.
I can’t imagine the traffic disruption once the segregated bus lanes will be constructed in the middle of the city’s 11-kilometer route.
Three weeks ago, the local government of Dumaguete City convened the pedicab drivers and operators to discuss the implementation of the Public Utility Vehicle Modernization Program as embodied by DOTr Order 2017-011.
For lack of space, go to https://ltfrb.gov.ph/index.php/puv-modernization-2/
Jointly organized by the office of Mayor Felipe Remollo, Cooperative Development Authority and the Negros Oriental Union of Cooperatives led by Dr. Profetiza Lim, the forum was aimed to gather feedback from the city’s 2,000 pedicab drivers, according to Dr. Nora Patron of the CDA Cebu Extension office.
The DOTr order is going to turn the country’s land transport system upside down.
To soften its impact, PUV drivers and operators can either organize a private corporation or set up a cooperative to gain access to financial support, equipment, training and technology.
As expected, Dumaguete City’s pedicab drivers are apprehensive but they are keeping an open mind and willing to thresh out their concerns with government agencies and sectoral bodies.
Cebu LGUs should band together to discuss the PUV modernization plan as a major first step because hanap mahitabo ang bisan unsang mass transit system karong panahona (any mass transit system won’t happen at this time).
The way forward lies in looking for doable solutions.