Osmeña traffic scheme proposal: Ban private cars for 30 minutes during rush hour

Local

WITH roads struggling to keep traffic moving, Cebu City Vice Mayor Tomas Osmeña is pushing the city to consider unconventional measures.

This includes a 30-minute rush-hour restriction on private cars and a system that would allow motorcycles to move ahead of cars at intersections.

Osmeña floated the two ideas during the recent Council’s executive session, saying the city needs to experiment with different traffic-management schemes while it continues to grapple with the shortcomings of the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) program.

He stressed that the proposals are not for immediate implementation but for further study and public consultation.

Osmeña suggested studying a system where private vehicles would be temporarily prohibited from entering selected roads for about 30 minutes during peak traffic periods.

The goal, he said, would be to create a window when jeepneys and buses could move with fewer private vehicles competing for limited road space.

Osmeña acknowledged that such a policy would inconvenience private vehicle owners but argued that they have greater flexibility to adjust their travel schedules compared with commuters who depend on public transportation to get to work or school.

“The road is only so wide,” Osmeña said.

The proposal would effectively reverse the usual road hierarchy by giving priority to the larger number of people using public transportation rather than to private vehicles.

Osmeña described this as a major policy shift that would need to be discussed publicly before any decision is made.

His second proposal focuses on motorcycles, which he said could be better integrated into the city’s traffic system because they occupy considerably less road space than cars.

He suggested studying a setup at signalized intersections where cars would stop farther back from the pedestrian crossing during a red light, leaving space for motorcycles to move toward the front of the queue.

When the signal turns green, motorcycles could then proceed ahead of the cars.

Osmeña said he had seen a similar concept being used in Taiwan and believed it could be tested in Cebu City.

The idea, he said, recognizes the difference in road space occupied by motorcycles and private cars, particularly when a car carries only its driver.

He said the city should not automatically treat motorcycles as a source of congestion when their smaller footprint could potentially be used to improve traffic flow.

Still, Osmeña emphasized that the proposal needs to be studied before the city determines whether it can work under Cebu’s traffic conditions.

Both proposals come as the city continues to seek ways to address traffic congestion, particularly along the Banilad-Talamban corridor, while its planned mass transit system remains a major point of concern.

No implementation schedule has been set for either proposal.

Osmeña said the immediate step should be to put the ideas on the table, subject them to technical assessment and hear from the public before the city decides whether either measure is workable.(TGP)