Councilors finally approve amended Traffic Code

AFTER nearly two years of study and deliberation, Davao City's new Comprehensive Transport and Traffic Code was finally approved on third and final reading.

City Councilor Pilar Braga, chair of the Davao City Council committee on energy transportation, and communication in Tuesday’s regular session, said the new version of the city’s Traffic Code will harmonize all its traffic policies.

The amended version of the code has a total of 28 articles and more or less 211 sections that was first drafted in 2010 after the creation of the Task Force Traffic Code of Davao City.

On Tuesday, all councilors present have finally voted under third and final reading for the adoption of the amended version of the Traffic Code that was first crafted in 1957.

"At last, after years of hard work, after so many meetings, and after so many sleepless nights, the code is now finally approved," Braga said.

Among the salient features of the code include the expansion of Republic Act 4136 or the Land Transportation and Traffic Code which will allow for operation of motorized tricycles-for-hire, designation of one-way streets, and public-pay parking zones and the creation of the rationalized and unified City Transport and Traffic Management Office.

Braga said the office will be important in overseeing the implementation of all the provisions of the code and among other functions.

The code will also allow the city to collect all the monetary fines from the no-contact policy implemented here wherein violators were captured by the closed-circuit television cameras installed in major streets and intersections across the city.