Transport group seeks improved road revolution

Closing the streets once a week would not help lessen air pollution in Cebu City, a transport sector representative said.

Ryan Benjamin Yu, president of the Cebu Integrated Transport Cooperative (Citrasco), said the closure of the 2.5-kilometer Osmeña Boulevard is “useless” and has inconvenienced the riding public.

“They did not promote clean air, because there was the same number of vehicles but just in a different route,” Yu told Cebu Daily News.

Ecology advocates asked Cebu City officials for the weekly closure of the boulevard after last Sunday’s “Road Revolution.”

Environment lawyer and Ramon Magsaysay awardee Antonio Oposa, who led the activity, submitted a petition to the Cebu City Council urging legislation to redesign roads so that these would accommodate bicycle lanes, pedestrians, a “Filipino-made” non-polluting mass transport system and edible gardens.

Oposa said City Hall and the Capitol could invest in a railway while the transport sector can form a cooperative to manage the railway franchise.

He said jeepney and bus drivers can schedule trips to free the roads for pedestrians and bikers.

Yu said the transport sector is open to meeting with Oposa to discuss the plan.

“I admire the project, but it would meet resistance, like in everything we do,” Yu said.

He said the phaseout of jeepneys would inconvenience Cebuanos.

He said the local government unit, environmentalists and the transport sector can come to an agreement.

“The common ground should be fair to all people concerned,” he said.

Meanwhile, skateboard enthusaiast Kaz Onozawa said he was grateful for last Sunday’s event since it gave him a chance to reely enjoy the road.

“The city did not give us skate parks so we skate everywhere and some see this as a nuisance,” Onozawa said.

However, 24-year-old gas station attendant Reynald Santos said the regular closure of Osmeña Boulevard would affect business in the gas station where he works.

“There will be fewer customers for us,” Santos said.

He said he had to walk from Escario Street to the gas station along Jones Avenue where he works last Sunday instead of taking a convenient jeepney ride.