HEAVY traffic continues to affect motorists coming from northern towns when they reach Consolacion town, and Mandaue City’s truck ban is being blamed for it.

Arnold Malig-on, who is in charge of traffic monitoring in Mandaue City’s Command Center, said the truck ban implemented in Mandaue City keeps trucks stuck in Consolacion.

The truck ban is in effect in Mandaue from 6 to 8 a.m. and from 5 to 8 p.m. Mondays to Saturdays. There is no truck ban on Sundays and holidays.

By the time they reach the boundary of Consolacion and Mandaue and the truck ban is still in effect, truck drivers resort to parking along the boundary while waiting to be allowed to enter Mandaue.

This creates a bottleneck in the area, Malig-on said.

Florentino Nimor Jr., head of the Traffic Enforcement Agency of Mandaue, recommended conducting a study and simulation of not having a truck ban for 14 hours to see if traffic improves. If the result is positive, they may cancel the truck ban in the city.

“The truck ban sometimes results in a peak time for heavy traffic. By the time the ban is lifted at 8 p.m., after the trucks are allowed to pass, the roads get congested again,” said Nimor.

For now, he suggested that truck drivers take routes not covered by a truck ban. These are Ouano Ave. to A. Soriano Ave. and D.M. Cortes to Cansaga Bridge and on U.N. Ave. to P. Burgos St. going to Cebu City.

Nimor could not say yet when the simulation will start since they are still studying the traffic flow from the highway in Barangay Tabok to the flyover in Barangay Maguikay, and from Pacific Mall to U.N. Ave. using their traffic simulator software. (KFD)