POCKET PUJ STOPS. A traffic enforcer mans the traffic at Mambaling's Vestil Road connecting the busiest N. Bacalso Avenue to the Cebu South Coastal Road, in this undated photo. Lawyer Rey Gealon, a member of the Cebu City Council, on Tuesday (Nov. 14, 2023) said the Traffic Management Council is now finalizing the "lay-by" ordinance that would ease traffic congestion in the city's main thoroughfare by creating pocket loading and unloading areas in gasoline stations and frontages of big establishments. (PNA photo by John Rey Saavedra)
CEBU CITY – The city traffic body here will no longer allow roadside bus and jeepney stops once an ordinance converting gasoline stations and establishment frontages into pocket passenger loading and unloading areas is implemented, an official said on Tuesday.
Councilor Rey Gealon, chairperson of the Cebu City Traffic Management Committee, said the “lay-by” ordinance will help decongest city roads experiencing heavy traffic due to the ongoing construction of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project.
The traffic body is conducting a pilot study in the Bulacao corridor in the south district where motorists were complaining about early morning traffic.
“The concept of improvised lay-by is to suspend jeepney stops along our major roads and allow loading and unloading of passengers in gasoline stations or frontages of big establishments,” Gealon told the Philippine News Agency.
The city government will declare lay-by loading and unloading areas as “discipline zones” where passengers will be apprehended for jaywalking if caught not using the designated pocket bus and jeepney stops, he added.
In the meantime, the traffic body is now putting up traffic signs in the Bulacao corridor, where the cities of Cebu and Talisay share a border, to prevent modern and traditional jeepneys and buses from loading and unloading.
Owners of gasoline stations and establishments tapped to participate in the pocket lay-by system will be called in a public hearing to allow them to suggest ways to smoothen the efforts.
“It’s their (gasoline station and establishment owners’) CSR (corporate social responsibility) program and a contribution to the city government’s effort to ease up our road from heavy traffic,” he added.
City traffic head Raquel Arce said establishing pocket loading and unloading areas would mean a “little sacrifice” to pedestrians who would be made to walk from the gasoline stations up to their destinations. (PNA)
