Last Tuesday’s road-sharing scheme in barangay Lahug held in time for the country’s Independence Day, while not perfect, was undeniably a small success and would provide impetus for a weekly regulation of vehicular flow for the rest of Cebu City.
Except for some minor glitches, like commuters and pedestrians who still continue to walk across areas that weren’t painted as walking zones, the road-sharing activity still managed to reduce traffic congestion and made life easier for bike riders, who got to use the route leading to Escario Street, Gorordo Avenue leading to JY Square Mall and down to the Waterfront Hotel.
Despite a proposed road-sharing ordinance still pending at the Cebu City Council, Lahug barangay officials were unperturbed and agreed to push through with the road-sharing scheme with some civic groups and prime movers of the Road Revolution.
We could only applaud these officials for their generosity and openness in pursuing the scheme even if the activity wasn’t fully disseminated to the public. To that we can only expect a better handling of this road-sharing arrangement and a slow, yet steady elevation of awareness among Cebu City residents and visitors to walk more and use non-motorized transportation to reduce pollution in the streets.
In fact, we notice the term used was “road-sharing” as opposed to Road Revolution which most, if not all of the riding public would look upon and listen with much disdain following the failed “Road Revolution” that closed off downtown Colon Street and caused hell on the road for both commuters and pedestrians late last year.
This year’s road-sharing scheme was supposed to be a repeat of last year’s “Road Revolution” also on June 12 in which bikers, skate-boarders and others using non-motorized transportation had the whole of Osmeña Boulevard to themselves even for a limited time.
Emboldened by that successful experiment, the organizers pushed through with a repeat of that activity in late September but failed to take into consideration other activities set for that day such as a mass wedding and the results for both the riding public and mass transportation were quite unpleasant to say the least.
The Cebu City Integrated Traffic Operations Management (Citom) observed correctly that there was a lack of information campaign on the part of the organizers to jeepney operators and drivers as well as the public.
A big mistake considering that even if they operate these “polluting jeepneys” these drivers and operators are still a significant part of the big picture and should be consulted and have their say on road-sharing if organizers hope to replicate their success of last year and this month.
The organizers should reach out more and build their case to these mass transport operators and the public as a whole to advance their advocacy for clean, pollution-free streets.