Perks for Mandaue parking firms pushed

CEBU, Philippines – To declog its streets of private vehicles, Mandaue City is eyeing to give incentives to businesses which can build multi-parking buildings near the terminals for mass transportation.

City planning and development office chief Florentino Nimor, in an interview with the media, said they are strongly advocating for the idea as a way of reducing the volume of vehicles on the streets.

Of the estimated 330,000 vehicles that ply the streets of Mandaue each day, one-half are private cars and taxi cabs, said Nimor.

Since the streets of Mandaue cannot handle this much of a volume at the moment, Nimor said they will push for more mass transit systems like MyBus. The MyBuses, operated by SM, have started plying the streets of Mandaue from Talisay City and SM Seaside at the South Road Properties late last year.

"We need to improve our mass transport system like MyBus. That's why Mandaue City is supporting that, kay convenient sa mga pasahero. Ma-lessen pud ang number of private vehicles kung daghan na ang mosakay ani," he said.

He said when there will be more buses, there will of course be terminals for them. He added that these terminals could now be used as alternative parking areas for owners of private vehicles.

When this happens, Nimor said the main highways will have less private vehicles.

At present, the city is implementing its dry-run for the extended truck ban (6 a.m. to 8 a.m., 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.), which is another way of easing traffic during peak hours in Mandaue.

Trucks account for one-fourth of the number of vehicles that pass the city everyday.

No Left Turn

Meanwhile, the city is also set to temporarily implement a No Left Turn policy in some of its critical traffic areas.

The Mandaue City Council yesterday approved the 60-day dry run for the new policy proposed by City Councilor Elstone Dabon.

In an interview shortly after the session, Dabon explained that it would take long before the measure gets passed so he instead presented a resolution for his proposed 60-day test. If it will work, a law will just follow, he said.

He said the No Left Turn policy in certain areas of Mandaue was based from the recommendation of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue (TEAM). The affected routes will be Sudlon Highway, Jaime Street in Barangay Paknaan and Suico Street in Barangay Tabok.

"If successful, TEAM will make a report kung ipadayun ba or dili," Dabon said.

He, however, said even this new policy is not a guarantee of a "perfect" solution to Mandaue City's road problems.

He added that it is up to the traffic group to start the implementation of the dry run. (FREEMAN)