WITH the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) project already in place, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said that city officials are looking into his plan to ban private cars in the downtown area.
"We're now embarking on a consultation study on converting the downtown area (for public vehicles only) or a ban on private cars," he said, adding that the matter is in preparation before the BRT project will be fully implemented.
Status update
The mayor said banning private cars in the downtown area, particularly on Colon St., will benefit drivers of public utility jeepneys that will be displaced along the BRT route from Bulacao to Talamban.
"We will give the jeepneys the downtown," he said.
He said that they've observed that only a few private cars go to the downtown area anyway.
Osmeña said he already asked Ryan Yu of Cebu Integrated Transport Cooperative to discuss the matter with the traffic office.
Meanwhile, National Economic and Development Authority Secretary Ernesto Pernia wrote Osmeña and informed him about the status of the multi-billion-peso mass transport project.
Pernia said that the alternative mass transport proposal of the Office of the Presidential Assistant for the Visayas will only be considered by the Investment Coordination Committee when it will be submitted to the Department of Transportation.
Pernia also reiterated that the BRT project can't be put on hold or scrapped in favor of the light rail transit.