Stricter traffic law enforcement this season
With the heavy volume of vehicles this holiday season, Cebu City Councilor Dave Tumulak said the City will strictly implement rules on traffic.
Tumulak, who chairs the public order and safety committee said he wants the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO) to strictly apprehend those who will obstruct intersections and pedestrian lanes.
“We need to strictly implement the no obstruction on intersection, no obstruction on pedestrian crossing. We noticed that motorists usually block the intersections because they want to be ahead of the others,” he said.
It was Tumulak who sponsored the amendment ordinance that increased the penalty for those who will violate the policy on no obstruction for intersection and pedestrian crossing.
Tumulak said there is blatant violation on the two simple traffic rules.
“There are drivers that even if they saw that pedestrians are crossing on pedestrian lanes, they tend to speed up and that shows no respect to the law and to the pedestrians. That is why they should be apprehended,” he said.
To be fair with the drivers, Tumulak also urged pedestrians to use the lane intended for them.
Close to 500 traffic enforcers are deployed in the city streets.
Despite the holiday, CCTO Operations Chief Francisco Ouano said their enforcers are not allowed to take their rest days and vacation leave.
The policy will continue until the Sinulog 2019 celebration next month.
Meanwhile, despite the yuletide frenzy, vehicular traffic in Cebu City started to improve last Saturday, Dec. 22, an official said.
Ouano said that from 40,000 vehicles last Friday, Dec. 21, the volume of vehicles plying the city’s streets decreased to 15,000 Saturday, Dec. 22.
Ouano attributed this to people leaving for their provinces earlier for the long weekend.
“Nag-anticipate pud siguro ang mga tawo na mo-traffic na gyud og magkaduol sa Pasko. Maong nanguli na sila ug namalit pag-Biyernes. Nakasinati gihapon ta og traffic sa Sabado, pero dili na ingon ana ka grabi sa miaging adlaw (They may be anticipating that traffic will worsen as Christmas approaches, and that’s why they bought things Friday and had gone home. Although there was still heavy traffic last Saturday, it wasn’t as bad as it was on Friday),” he said.
On the other hand, the trial run of the modern public busjeep (beep) continues to run smoothly in Cebu City despite the holiday craze.
Ouano said that regardless of the beeps’ presence, the traffic situation in their missionary routes worsens during the holiday season.
He said drivers of the new mode of transportation have also followed traffic rules.