Navotas ordinance eyes tougher truck ban policy

A stricter truck ban policy will soon be enforced in Navotas following the approval of an ordinance which aims to ease traffic flow in the city.

Ordinance 2015-2 which Mayor Reynald M. Tiangco approved in February, prohibits heavy trucks from the city except on designated truck routes. It also imposes stiffer penalties on violators.

Ernani Calayag, head of the City Traffic and Management Office, said that the ordinance which amends Navotas’ traffic management code of 2004 was important because trucks have been taking different routes in the city, causing heavy traffic.

Aside from specifying routes truckers can take, the ordinance has increased the penalty for violators from P2,000 to P5,000 “because some drivers opt to pay the fine instead of following the traffic scheme,” Calayag added.

Under the ordinance, cargo trucks, gravel and sand trucks, tractor trailers and container haulers with a gross capacity weight of 4,500 kilograms are barred from “all roads or streets in the city from Mondays to Saturdays except on holidays and on streets specified as truck routes.”

Truckers, however, carrying perishable goods or cargo like fish and vegetables may secure a special pass from the traffic management office so they will be exempted from the policy, Calayag said.

Under the new law, trucks are allowed to travel any time on C3 Road: from Caloocan-Navotas to C3 Road-R10 Road to Manila. It’s the “fastest route” to deliver goods from Quezon City to Manila which is why it was designated as the special truck route, Calayag said.

Trucks may also pass through M. Naval Street: from Agora to Cut-off Channel, from C-4 Road to Tangos; Gov. Pascual Street, C-4 Road and H. Lopez Boulevard except during the rush hour periods from 6 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m.

They are, however, prohibited from passing through M. Naval Street from Cut-off Channel to C-4. Those coming from Bangculasi should pass through M. Naval to Lapu-Lapu Avenue to R-10 and vice-versa.