Tomas to motorists: Don’t obstruct junction boxes, pedestrian lanes

A vehicle is seen obstructing the pedestrian lane, an offense which Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña wants penalized with bigger fines.
/Photo from the mayor’s FB page

DO NOT block junction boxes and pedestrian lanes.

Anyone caught violating this directive will be meted with fines of at least P500, said Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña.

Osmeña said that the pedestrian lanes should be left for people to use.

If he were to have his way, Osmeña even wanted the fines for abusive drivers that is provided for in the city’s traffic code doubled to teach them a lesson.

Osmeña admitted that the Cebu City Traffic Office (CCTO) is not also authorized to impound the vehicles of erring drivers unlike in the implementation of his anti-counterflow Executive Order.

He said City Council members will have to pass an ordinance that would allow CCTO to impound the vehicles of drivers caught obstructing junction boxes and pedestrian lanes.

Until an ordinance is passed, Osmeña said, he wanted to focus for now on the implementation of his anti-counterflow EO.

“I monitor the public’s ability to adjust to a new situation. I cannot put all kinds of violations and restrictions because we cannot implement it all. We’ll just be concentrating now on counterflow,” Osmeña said on his Facebook post Tuesday night.

A netizen reacted to Osmeña’s post and asked if he intends to “impound the jaywalkers too?”

Osmeña replied, “don’t you think I should clear the pedestrian lanes before actually encouraging the people to use them?”