Tagbilaran City mayor Jane Yap declined to entertain the idea of implementing a coding scheme to control the traffic flow in the city.
The lady mayor said that a coding scheme is not appropriate for a city such as Tagbilaran.
“In terms of traffic, murag dili mahitabo dinhi nato sa Tagbilaran nga macoding ta, kay dili man ta ingon ana ka-congested,” the mayor said during a radio interview aired over Open Forum on Aug. 12, 2022, hosted by Chandymar Araneta-Batoy.
The mayor’s position on the coding scheme comes as such traffic control is set to be implemented in Metro Manila as part of the preparation of the Aug. 22, 2022 opening of face-to-face classes in the country.
Mayor Yap said she focuses now on the repainting of pedestrian lanes, installation of new traffic signages, and the hiring of additional traffic enforcers.
NO ONE-WAY LOOP SYSTEM
In the program, the mayor also took the opportunity to clarify false reports saying that the one-way loop system will be re-implemented.
It can be remembered that back in 2017, the city government, under the leadership of former Mayor John Geesnell Yap Ii, implemented the one-way loop system. The said traffic scheme was junked eventually.
In the interview, Mayor Jane Yap said that there is no plan to revive the one-way loop traffic scheme as a measure to solve the traffic issues in the city.
“Ako lang i-announce dire sa kahanginan nga dili nato ibalik ang loop system. Dili pod na tinood,” the mayor clarified during the interview.
Moreover, she said that the city government has no plans to add more tricycle franchise on top of the existing ones.
Currently, there are 3,000 tricycle franchises in the city, and it was reported that during the 9-year tenure of Mayor John Geesnell Yap, there was no new tricycle franchise granted.
“Dili nato dugangan [ang tricycle franchise], Kadtong 3,000 nga pagsugod sa term ni Mayor Baba, as is ra gihapon to kay makadugang ra pod na sa traffic and competition [sa mga tricycles] kung atong dugangan,” the lady mayor quipped.
PAZADA APP
Mayor Jane Yap said the ride-hailing app Pazada is already operational in Tagbilaran City with at least 80 tricycles already participating in the program.
The program uses an app where passengers can book a tricycle ride more conveniently compared to waiting for a tricycle cab ride along the side of the steets.
In another development, Mayor Jane Yap announced the pilot implementation of the use of e-wallet GCash as the mode of payment for tricycle fares.
This means that passengers can now forego paying their tricycle fares using cash and instead transfer funds to the tricycle driver’s GCash account.
This program is in its initial stage and only a few tricycle drivers are included in the program as of the moment.
Eventually, the lady mayor said, this payment scheme shall also be used in multicabs as people may soon use GCash to pay for goods being sold in the city’s public markets, the mayor explained during the interview.