Rama supports road sharing, orders Citom to issue permit

Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama yesterday showed his support for the road sharing experiment on Sunday by directing the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) to go out of its  way and help organizers get a road use permit for the Sept. 28 activity.

The mayor gave the order and asked the public to bear with the inconvenience that may be caused by the new setup where half of the lane will be used  by vehicles and the other half or inner lane near the sidewalk will be used by pedestrians, bikers and skateboarders,   in four major roads from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“We want  to give more space for people and less space for  vehicles. This is part of environmental preservation and promoting air quality,” the mayor said.

Organizers were not yet issued a permit as of yesterday.

Citom chief Rafael Yap said organizers were supposed to appear today before the Citom board and make a presentation of the Sept. 28 road sharing scheme which is part of an urban renewal plan  called the Cebu Green Loop being pushed by the Movement for a Livable Cebu, whose advocates  include professionals and academics in the University of San Carlos College of Fine Arts and Architecture.

Their appearance was rescheduled  because of the widespread street flooding which affected the city after the Sept. 18 downpour.

Full support

Yap, who earlier said Citom would field 20 traffic enforcers to man intersections on Sunday,  said road sharing organizers have to get a Citom board endorsement for their road use permit.

Mayor Rama instead advised: “Don’t wait for  organizers to come to Citom,   I want Citom to go to the organizers and ask them to please secure a permit.  That is my marching order,” Rama said in a phone interview. He was in Manila yesterday to attend a  United Nationalist Alliance party meeting.

Rama asked media outlets in Cebu, especially radio and TV broadcasters, to spread the word about Sunday’s road experiment.  “Everybody should be aware about it. The way they are doing it is trial and error.” he added  This will be the third time the road sharing scheme is  being tried in Cebu  City since 2011.