Baguio City gov’t plans ban of jeeps from towns

By Dexter A. See

BAGUIO CITY – The city government is studying the possibility of banning entry of inter-municipal public utility jeepneys (PUJs) in the central business district as one of the city’s strategies to address  the daily worsening traffic congestions.

Mayor Benjamin B. Magalong said he already initially informed the municipal mayors of La Trinidad, Itogon, Sablan, Tuba and Tublay on the said plan of the city and there will be continuing engagements with them on the matter as part of the dissemination of the plan to the concerned stakeholders.

He added residents and visitors in the city will realize a big improvement in the traffic flow in the central business district area once the inter-municipal PUJs will not enter the city proper aside from working for the putting in place of an effective mass transport system to address the transport requirements of the people wanting to go around the city.

The city chief executive said the inter-municipal PUJs need to cooperate with the implementation of the city government’s policy no longer allowing them to enter the central business district area considering as this will translate to the overall well-being of everyone.

One of the 15-point collective agenda of the present administration is a revitalized and effective traffic management that is geared towards significantly improving the traffic flow around the city.

The city government tried to implement the non-entry of La Trinidad PUJS in the city but allowed only to enter until the Slaughterhouse Compound but this resulted to more inconvenience not only to commuters from La Trinidad but also those from Baguio |city going to the different parts of Benguet.

Magalong said the matter will be discussed in the next meeting of the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba-Tublay (BLISTT) Governing Board to get inputs from other local chief executives on decongesting the city proper from the huge volume of vehicles daily.

According to him, one of the problems that the local government is trying to address is the huge volume of vehicles plying the city’s streets daily that cause the occurrence of monstrous traffic congestions leading towards the inconvenience of both residents and tourists.

He noted that based on data obtained from concerned government agencies, there are already at least 65,000 private and public motor vehicles registered in the city, thus, the huge volume of vehicles is one of the pressing issues that has to be addressed to help lessen the inconvenience to the public.

Part of the short-, medium-, and long-term solutions being eyed by the city government is the study to be conducted by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) to pinpoint the problems and the recommended solutions to the city’s traffic woes considering that MMDA traffic experts based on the data they gathered into their simulation survey that will provide recommendations on how to improve the traffic flow around the city once the same will be made available in the next 4 months.