Fuente Osmeña adopts parallel parking scheme

CEBU, Philippines - To ease the traffic congestion during peak hours, the Cebu City Transportation Office has implemented the parallel parking along Fuente Osmeña Rotunda starting yesterday.

The move, CCTO executive director Rey Gealon said, is to address the increasing volume of vehicles passing through the area, based on the data compiled over the past three months.

“By and large, vehicles occupy three lanes as other vehicles still utilized the outer lane to surreptitiously load and unload passengers despite the allocated inner lane for that purpose. Drivers of passing vehicles find it difficult to maneuver along as they are left with fewer lanes around the Fuente Osmeña rotunda,” he said.

The rotunda has seven lanes.

Prior to this new parking scheme, Mayor Michael Rama implemented the carousel parking or the roundabout scheme at Fuente.

For the carousel parking, motorists are allowed to park diagonally on the second lane from the sidewalk. The outermost lane, the one beside the sidewalk, is a free lane for loading and unloading of passengers.

The roundabout scheme, Gealon said, is seen to be disadvantageous for the motorists since more lanes are dedicated for parking.

“The parallel parking scheme implemented by CCTO is different from the previous one kay before man gud, parallel siya but ang sakyanan is facing the establishment. Karon, ang sakyanan is murag pidpid na ‘ta sa outermost lane,” Gealon said.

Gealon said the modified scheme, which Rama has approved, will ease up traffic in the area especially in General Maxilom Avenue and Osmeña Boulevard.

Gealon said his office has observed the smooth traffic flow in the area, which led him to adopt the scheme and make it permanent.

To formalize the request, he said his office sent formal communication to around 30 business establishments around the rotunda on August 11.

As an initial reaction, the establishments asked to retain the carousel parking scheme since it draws more clients for them.

However, Gealon said it is better to balance the interest of the business and the public.

“We cannot heed to their demand because we have to sacrifice the interest of the few to uphold the interest of the public,” the city official said. — (FREEMAN)