Rama to Ban Motorcycles in SRP

To prevent more accidents at the South Coastal Road passing South Road Properties (SRP), Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama is now planning to ban motorcycles from passing the road.

Rama said from 2008 until last year, there were over 1,600 road accidents reported at the SRP-Coastal Road alone and he considered it already as alarming.

“The fact that there were accidents that have not been completely addressed, it’s high time that motorcycles will not be allowed to pass the area. Kuyaw kaayo na diha for small vehicles,” the mayor said.

The statistics show that of the 1,617 road accidents at the SRP since 2008, the highest number of accidents was recorded in 2013 with 280 cases.

It was followed by 2012 (272), 2011 (256), 2014 (245), 2008 (212), 2010 (199) and 2009 (153). Rama said the records show that 592 of these accidents involved motorcycles where nine people died.

Rama said the number of vehicular accidents is already alarming and this needs to be addressed by preventing motorcycles from using the coastal road.

The mayor had already informed Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) Secretary Rogelio Singson of his plan to temporarily ban the motorcycles from passing the SRP road to prevent more accidents.

But Regional Director Arnel Tancinco of the Land Transportation Office (LTO)-7 said banning the motorcycles from passing the SRP-South Coastal Road may not be the solution to the problem.

The City Traffic Operations Management (CITOM) had already installed signboards at the SRP-Coastal Road advising the motorists to reduce their speed to 30 kilometer per hour as one way to prevent road accidents.

Traffic enforcers had been deployed at the SRP to apprehend over-speeding motorist, but the problem is that they cannot evaluate the speed without using a speed gun.