Mayor Rama urged: Reconvene BRT working group’s members

The Cebu City Council is asking Mayor Michael Rama to reconvene the members of the Bus Rapid Transit-Technical Working Group (BRT-TWG) so that there will be a body to oversee the status of the the implementation of the city’s BRT plans.

This developed after the City Council approved during its session last Wednesday a resolution sponsored by Councilor Nestor Archival seeking to reconvene the BRT body.

Once convened, Archival wants the BRT-TWG to brief him and members of the council’s committee on transportation on the status of the BRT project.

“A bus rapid transit system was conceptualized to respond to the city’s need for a fast mode of transportation which will operate on dedicated lanes and utilize technology-based-solutions that allow for bus priority junctions where it operates with regular vehicular traffic,” said Archival’s approved

resolution.

Rama earlier issued an executive order creating the BRT-TWG. The executive order named Archival as the BRT-TWG head.

However, Archival resigned from the post early this year when he decided to run as councilor in the last elections under the Bando Osmeña Pundok Kauswagan (BO-PK).

CITOM HEAD

In Archival’s absence, Rama designated City Traffic Operation Management head, Rafael Yap as the new BRT-TWG head.

Yap said in an earlier interview that the Department of Transportation and Communication (DOTC) is making a new presentation of the BRT project before the NEDA during the third or fourth quarter of the year.

The BRT project was presented to the NEDA board on November 2012 but its approval was deferred pending presentation of proof of concept. Board members chaired by president Benigno Aquino III also want clarification on how BRT operations will mix with PUJs and other vehicles now plying the proposed BRT route from Bulacao in the south to Talamban in the north.

BIKE LANES

As this developed, Yap said that an earlier proposal to put up bike lanes along S. Osmeña Road, Juan Luna Avenue to barangay Busay is not feasible because the roads are assigned to big and fast-moving vehicles.

S. Osmeña Road, for example, is an industrial corridor being used by vehicles with a speed limit of at least 60 kph while Juan Luna Street now known as Pope John Paul II Street has heavy traffic volume.

“We want the data that we get to tell us where to put the bike lanes,”

Yap said.

FEASIBILITY STUDY

Citom is now doing a feasibility study which they will submit to DOTC during the later part of the year. The study is a DOTC requirement for the city’s request for the national government agency to fund the establishment of bike

lanes here.

“We are now doing the study for DOTC funding and hopefully in 2016 we will already have bike lanes in the city,” Yap said.