No left turn’ policy in Ban-Tal starts today

The Cebu City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) will implement a 24-hour  “no left turn” policy at the Banilad-Talamban corridor near the Gaisano Country Mall effective today.

The policy was agreed on during yesterday’s meeting of the Ban-Tal Traffic Management Board which was attended by Mayor Michael Rama.

Outgoing Citom executive director Rafael Yap said the 24-hour effectivity was meant to help ease the congestion in the area espcially during the  Christmas season.

“The area near Gaisano Country Mall in J. Panis and Gov. Cuenco Avenue usually has the heaviest traffic. We’re doing the 24-hour no left turn in that area to smoothen the traffic flow there,” Yap told reporters yesterday.

Yap, who was on his last day as Citom executive director yesterday, said the no-left turn in other intersections along BanTal will continue to take effect on scheduled times in peak hours in the morning and afternoon.

Traffic engineering

Yap said it was also agreed during the meeting that a re-routing of some of the passenger jeepneys passing through the corridor will be implemented.

Those coming from Consolacion, Mandaue and other areas will have to pass through AS Fortuna instead of BanTal while those from barangay Apas can only use the interior roads and not the major thoroughfare in BanTal.

Only passenger jeepneys going to and from Talamban will be allowed to use the BanTal main road which is the Gov. Cuenco Ave.

Yap said they coordinated with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for the re-routing and they will issue a consolidated traffic re-routing advisory soon.

He said there will also be “traffic engineering measures” to be done along certain corridors in Cebu City like taking out the islands and separators along roads like in N. Bacalso and V. Rama intersection.

Point group

“These are all in the context of not just improving the BanTal traffic but also to improve the overall flow of traffic for Christmas,” Yap said.

Rama issued a memorandum to Yap yesterday designating him as project head of the Cebu City Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project effective yesterday.

Replacing Yap is Victor Caindec, who had been a Citom board member for more than a year and is the private sector representative to the board.

As BRT project head, Yap said his office will handle the engineering and social impacts of the BRT and will be the point group for the project.

The Department of Transportation and Communications (DOTC) will be the main implementor of the BRT project.