Katipunan tricycles get reprieve

Tricycle operators and drivers serving the Katipunan Avenue route were given a temporary reprieve after the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) granted the Quezon City government’s request to defer the ban of the three-wheeled vehicles in the area.

To prevent confusion, MMDA Special Operations Group head Bong Nebrija said that tricycles can only use the side of Katipunan Avenue.

The MMDA has also assigned a dispatcher at the tricycle terminal to ensure that only four passengers including the driver board per tricycle to avoid overloading.

Each tricycle can only accommodate three passengers with the driver as the fourth person on board.

The president of the Katipunan Tricycle Operators and Drivers’ Association (TODA) said six tricycle drivers were already nabbed for overloading.

Tricycle drivers violating the overloading law will be penalized with three-day suspension as mandated with the agreement between the MMDA, QC local government, and TODA members.

Elmo San Diego chief of the city’s Department of Public Order and Safety (DPOS) said a technical working group was created to determine routes and other measures that would make tricycle units avoid using national roads.

Earlier, the Quezon City gov- ernment has vowed to fully cooperate with the MMDA in enforcing tricyclerelated regulations.

The MMDA reiterated that it is mandated to implement national laws including the banning of tricycles on main roads.

Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte insisted that an existing regulation signed by the then Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) already mandates local government units to apprehend tricycles using main roads except in cases where there are no alternate routes.

Last week, the government’s Interagency Council for Traffic (I-ACT) launched an operation along Katipunan Avenue in Quezon City against tricycles using the national road.