Quezon City implements partial truck ban

MANILA, Philippines — A partial truck ban will be enforced in some parts of Visayas and Mindanao Avenues in Quezon City to ease traffic congestion, especially during rush hour, Mayor Joy Belmonte announced yesterday.

Belmonte signed an ordinance prohibiting trucks and other heavy vehicles from traversing these major roads under the city’s jurisdiction from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 10 p.m.

“These roads have become a favorite route for trucks because they can easily reach other places in Metro Manila,” Belmonte said.

“But this leads to traffic congestion, especially during rush hours, affecting other motorists and commuters. So we decided to implement a partial truck ban,” she added.

The ordinance is in line with the modified truck ban policy of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

Covered by the ban are trucks with six or more wheels, buses and other motor vehicles classified by the Land Transportation Office as heavy.

Belmonte clarified that the truck ban would not be enforced during Sundays and holidays.

Exempted from the ban are fire trucks, garbage, hauling and dump trucks, police and military trucks as well as other vehicles owned by or under contract with the government for public service works.

Violators will be fined P5,000 and penalized with a prison term of one year depending on the discretion of the court.

The partial truck ban will be implemented by the city’s department of public order and safety, Quezon City Police District and the MMDA.

More bus stops

To further ease travel around Quezon City, especially for workers, the city government has established more pickup and drop-off points on eight routes of the free bus ride program.

More bus stops were added this week to accommodate the requests received by the local government, according to the latest route map and timetable of the city’s bus augmentation program.

From four drop-off and pickup points when it was first launched earlier this month, the Quezon City Hall (QCH)-Cubao route now has seven bus stops, including near the LRT and MRT stations.

Another bus stop was added for the QCH to Litex, Welcome Rotonda to Katipunan and Mindanao Avenue to QCH routes.

Additional bus stops were also put up for the QCH to General Luis, QCH to Robinsons Magnolia, Ortigas Avenue to QCH and Muñoz to QCH routes.

The new route map also highlighted unified pickup and drop-off points to allow travelers to transfer from one bus route to another.

The city government launched on Dec. 7 the bus augmentation program to provide additional transportation to city residents and workers.

“We have carefully studied the routes and pickup points to make the ride easier for commuters,” Belmonte said. “We hope that this program will help alleviate the shortage in public transportation and to get commuters to their destinations faster and safer.”

City hall partnered with the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board for the bus augmentation program.

City administrator Michael Alimurung said the program would be open to the public during its initial run.

The local government will eventually require passengers to present the soon-to-be-released QCitizen identification cards.

Alimurung said city hall personnel would ensure that health and safety protocols are implemented, including physical distancing, temperature checks, sanitation and filling out of contact tracing forms for each passenger.

“We also expect the program to reduce the number of private cars as motorists might opt to take the bus en route to their destination,” he said.