OFF LIMITS. In this June 12, 2012 road revolution photo, skaters enjoy the road at the Fuente Osmeña Circle. The new Citom policy is bad news for road-sharing advocates and skater dudes as well as skate boarders. Roller skaters have been banned from city streets over safety concerns.
Citing road safety concerns, the Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will go after skaters on Cebu City streets.
“We are not doing this because we want additional income but rather for the safety of these people especially the children,” said Citom executive director Rafael Yap.
As summer approaches, Citom anticipates an increase of young adults skateboarding on the city’s streets.
Mayor Michael Rama ordered Yap to call for a meeting with the United Cebu Skaters to warn them about the road use regulation.
Councilor Roberto Cabarrubias said his service vehicle almost hit a skateboarder while traversing a street in barangay Basak Pardo one night.
Cabarrubias said skateboarders are not only endangering themselves but also the motorists.
The city government should identify a place which skaters and rollerbladers could use.
Joy Tumulak, Citom operations head, said they already spoke to a mall manager to allow the use of their open space for rollerblades and skateboard enthusiasts. But the mall begged off fearing that their gathering would also attract criminals like robbers to frequent their mall.
Tumulak said that in the absence of a place that they could use, some skateboarders would even race with passenger jeepneys or hang on the jeepneys’ rear grab bars.
City Ordinance 801 of the City’s Traffic Code prohibits rollerbladers and skateboarders from using city streets for their activities and imposes a fine of P500 aside from the confiscation of the rollerblades or skateboards but this has not been fully implemented.
Tumulak said they confiscated four to six skateboards and rollerblades last week but later returned these to the owners after reprimanding them.
While not all enthusiasts own a skateboard or rollerblade, they could easily rent one after paying P20 per hour. Tumulak said they have identified people in barangays Ermita and
Tinago who earn from renting these out.
The city’s Traffic Ordinance does not prohibit skateboarding per se, but disallows this on the city streets. Leasing skateboards cannot be considered a crime, he added.