CEBU CITY, Philippines — The horns of buses plying Cebu City are too loud for residents, who are mostly working at home while the city remains under the modified general community quarantine (MGCQ).
Councilor James Cuenco, City Council chairperson for the committee on transportation, told CDN Digital that he had received complaints from residents that the horns of big buses were causing disturbances to their areas, which never heard of such noise before.
The buses plying in Cebu City as of now are a mixture of modern jeepneys, Cebu Interim Bus Service (CIBUS), Mybus, and the bigger buses from the major bus liners, which used to ply the provincial route.
There are not much complaints about the smaller buses or the more modern CIBUS and Mybus, but residents have been complaining of the loud horns of the bigger buses.
Cuenco said that the loud horns are expected since these buses used to ply the provincial route and loud horns were needed on the highway where the drivers need to signal their passing from even a kilometer away especially on the relatively empty and long roads.
However, the councilor believes there was no need to have such loud noises in the city where the roads were more regulated and cars were abundant.
Cuenco discouraged bus liners from using an amplified horn system because it would cause too much noise.
“Nisulat ko sa mga bus liners nga if pwede tangtangon na nila kanang mga gadgets nga saba kaayo. Wala man na gikinahanglan diri sa syudad labi na nga digkit-digkit ang mga balay,” said Cuenco.
(I wrote the bus liners that if possible they can remove those gadgets that cause so much noise. These are not needed in the city where houses are closely situated to each other.)
Read: BRT’s full completion expected in 2023
Cuenco said he was hoping for a positive response from the bus liners as it was important for the city to address such problems before the full implementation of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) system.
He said that once BRT would be implemented, the city could expect more buses on the streets and if the horn problem would not be addressed beforehand, the city would be too noisy to live in.
A resident of Barangay Pardo, who lived along Natalio Bacalso Highway, told CDN Digital that his family was used to hearing the noise of the road but ever since the buses had taken over most of the public transportation, their horns had become too loud even for them.
“Saba gyod sila usahay labi na rush hour. Mas saba gyod run pero naanad na lang mi usahay kay basta sayo sa buntag or padung gabii mosaba napud ang mga bus. Di man siya dako nga problema, samok lang,” said the resident who refused to be named.
(They are really noisy especially during rush hour. They are even noiser today but we have gotten used to it like in the early morning or the hours leading to evening — they are expected to be noisier at those hours. It is, however, not a problem, it is just bothersome to us.)
/dbs