Mandaue experiences moderate to heavy traffic on 1st day of GCQ

The new traffic lights with timer, audio and closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras at SC Cortes corner Plaridel Street, Mandaue City. |CDN file photo

CEBU CITY, Philippines— On its first day of using buses as their mass transportation, Mandaue City’s Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM)  executive director, Lawyer Jamaal Calipayan, said that all went well on its first day under general community quarantine public transportation wise.

During the first day of GCQ in the city, Calipayan told CDN Digital through a phone interview that they had experienced moderate to heavy traffic.

“There is significantly rise noh sa atong mga motorista nga nang gawas which is expected because nag abli naman gyud ta og ubay ubay nga mga establishment for GCQ,” said Calipayan.

(There is significantly — a rise of motorists who were out on the streets, which was expected because there were several establishments that have opened for the GCQ.)

Read more: More buses to ply Mandaue City’s streets starting June 1

With their mass transportation, Calipayan said that they had only dispatched around 40 buses for the first day, which was fewer than what the city promised to dispatch — 120 Ceres buses.

“40 kay ato pang gibasa ang panahon ato mang gung nakita for karon until sguro until next week dili pa gyud ang full nga compliment sa mga offices, establishments because most of them mao pay intay pag gawas ani nila. Mao pay pagpreparar sa ilang mga opisina so wala pay full operations. As the weeks and as the days will come mag anam sad ni atong mga pasahero og saka then diha nato ma hinay hinay og add atong mga buses plying in and outside sa city,” he added.

(We sent out 40 buses because we are still assessing the situation and we saw that for now until next week, the offices and establishments would not have still their full complement of employees. The office are also preparing to run for full operations. As the weeks and as the days will come, more passengers will be expected and then that will be the time will we slowly add more buses plying in and outside the city.)

For today, the city deployed 23 buses in the morning, and then by noontime, they have already deployed 30 buses and added more buses late in the afternoon which totaled to 40 buses.

“Ang atong na notice pagkabuntag mga first three hours more or less ubay ubay atong mga pasahero na nakita nato sa kadalan-an. Medyo pagkabuntag atong mga ubay ubay nga pasahero gkan sa norte, padung dinhi sa Cebu City, Mandaue ug Lapu-Lapu and sa paghapon bali going nasad na norte kay kining mang uli na,” said Calipayan.

(What we noticed in the first three hours of the morning more or less there were a lot of passengers that we saw on the streets. In the morning, there were already more passengers from the north heading to the cities of Cebu, Mandaue and Lapu-Lapu. In the afternoon it was the reverse — passengers from the three cities were heading north to go home.)

Read more: Mandaue traffic chief asks public to honor bus stops

Calipayan said that all in all the mass transportation in Mandaue went well and was received by the public well.

 Although they might have to make necessary adjustments with the routes and the number of buses in the coming days, as for now, Calipayan said he and the rest of the TEAM would continue to closely monitor all the public transportation in the city and especially the riding public. /dbs