WORTH TRYING: Frayed nerves, happy faces greet Cebu City’s road-sharing experiment

Bikers and pedestrians share the road at the Capitol site during the Green Loop Road sharing activity. (CDN PHOTO/LITO TECSON)

Hundreds of motorists and commuters endured an unusual Sunday afternoon traffic as vehicles crawled at snail’s space following the closure of key thoroughfares to give way to Cebu City’s road sharing experiment.

While nerves were put to a test to some, the other road users – the cyclists, skateboarders, hikers and joggers enjoyed traversing the lanes, not at all fearing for their safety.

According to Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) executive director Rafael Yap there were no reported accidents during the road share experiment that ran from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

“There was really heavy traffic but it was moving. There were a lot of participants. The traffic congestion peaked at around 4pm,” he said.

Citom said most of the congestion occurred in intersections especially in Gorordo and Gen Maxilom Ave. and the Capitol area going to Fuente Osmena. The interior roads of Juana Osmena Extension which connects Escario St. to Gen. Maxilom Ave. was also affected by the experiment.

Over 30 traffic enforcers were deployed to manage traffic flow in what the experiment proponents call as the “Green Loop” area.

Yap said they had to deploy additional personnel since some motorists were not heeding the volunteers who were tasked to help control the traffic.

Cebu City Councilor Gerry Carillo said the Sunday experiment showed that there are a lot of things to consider before the road sharing scheme gets adopted. “It created a lot of traffic. I received a lot of complaints. But it’s worth a try. It has to be thoroughly reviewed,” said Carillo who heads the City Council committee on traffic management.

He said the scheme has to be weighed carefully. He said that while there are people like bikers and skateboarders who were delighted with the road sharing idea, there are also others who were inconvenienced.

Carillo noted that despite the information drive conducted by Citom and the organizers before yesterday’s experiment, many were still caught unaware.

Organizers of the experiment also agreed that there is still a lot to be done. “We have a lot of things to learn that’s why we’re having this experiment. There were no major issued and no major safety concerns.

Some places were better controlled than others. We organizers can do better especially in traffic flow implementation and information drives,” said Marc Canton, lead convenor of the Movement for a Livable Cebu (MLC).

He said they expected to receive complaints from the riding public. For participants who got to enjoy their half of the road, Canton said 99 percent were very satisfied with the activity.

On the other side, for passengers who were stuck in traffic, Canton gave a 50-50 assessment saying motorists were “disgruntled” because they didn’t know something was going on.

Canton said organizers will be sharing notes and observations and other data from the activity before deciding on another activity. But Canton said there will definitely be more tests and experiments to be done in order to change the mindset of the people on road use.

He said next steps might involve doing the road sharing for one whole day or maybe for a specific number of hours on a weekday. But there is still no timeframe yet on when they will do more activities pending their full study on the data from the activity.

“Overall, I would give the activity a B minus. We had problems on mutual respect since some motorists took advantage. In terms of traffic, I will give it a B minus and an A for pedestrians. In terms of garbage, a B plus,” Canton said.

Canton said people should be ready to feel the birthing pains that go with the road sharing scheme.
“There has to be a short time pain in order to have a long term gain,” he said.

“We have to share the road. Katong motorista pud ko I know we have to suffer but until we have to find solution…we have to bear some pains,” he said.

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