THE Cebu City government has updated the tricycle routes in three barangays to help service areas that are not accessible to public transport.
But City Attorney Rey Gealon, who also serves as executive director of the Cebu City Transportation Office (CCTO), said the update of tricycle routes in Barangays Tisa, Bacayan and Punta Princesa is also in compliance with the order of the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) banning tricycles and pedicabs from major thoroughfares.
Based on the updated tricycle route plan (TRP) for the three barangays, tricycles will be given letter codes to distinguish what routes they will be plying.
Tricycles with Code FV will be traveling to Felina Village and Gaisano in Barangay Tisa, and vice versa.
Tricycles with Code VL will be plying to and from Villa Leyson Subdivision in Barangay Bacayan, while those with Code BN will be travelling to and from Sitio Manga in Tisa and Sitio Nazareth in Upper Buhisan and vice versa.
Tricycles with code FP will be traveling to and from F. Llamas St., Pleasant Homes Subdivision and Don Bosco Technical College in Punta Princesa.
Gealon said the new routes were made so other congested interior roads of the city will be lessened.
Tricycles and pedicabs in these barangays often hog the roads and park or pick up passengers without regard for traffic flow, he added.
The CCTO is also planning to limit the number of tricycles along those routes.
Tricycles that are caught plying outside their designated routes will be penalized with a P500 fine, said CCTO operations chief Erwin Navales.
Cebu City Mayor Edgardo Labella, in a separate interview, said he is set to form a tricycle task force in response to the DILG memorandum. It will be in-charge in monitoring and implementation of the DILG directive.
A total of 494 tricycles ply the interior roads of barangays in the city. (JJL)