Cebu City’s road-sharing experiment spawns heavy traffic

Environmentalists have been advocating ‘road sharing’ as means to alleviate pollution and accidents. This entails giving up a large portion of the road to pedestrians and bicycles. But as an experimental road-sharing project in Cebu City showed, it can also lead to traffic congestion.

Hundreds of people were caught in heavy traffic congestion during the Green Loop road-sharing experimentation that went on Sunday afternoon from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Martin Alcover was late for Mass at Sacred Heart Church on D. Jakosalem Street in the city’s uptown district.

“The homily was already over when I arrived at the church. Had I known there would be road-sharing, I could have left for church earlier,” said Alcover, who is from Barangay (village) Lahug.

Half of a 4-kilometer stretch of road in the uptown area was closed to vehicular traffic during the Green Loop event, affecting portions of Osmeña Boulevard, General Maxilom and Gorordo Avenues, and Escario Street. The inner lane of the four-lane road was exclusive to pedestrians while the outer ones were used by motorists and open to two-way traffic.

Rudy Alix, one of the Green Loop organizers, said the scheme was meant to make pedestrians part of urban development and promote healthy living by encouraging exercise and reducing smoke emission.

The inner lane of the route was closed to vehicular traffic at 3 p.m., allowing bicycle riders, skateboard enthusiasts and pedestrians to take over. But the organizers failed to install ropes to properly delineate the lane for pedestrians and those for motorists as planned.

Marc Canton, another organizer and lead convener of Movement for a Livable Cebu, said the group failed to purchase the 4,000-meter rope and find the poles it needed.

Louella Alix, one of the road-sharing conveners, apologized for the congestion. “But it’s for the greater good,” she said.

Steve Abella said traffic was so bad, it took him an hour to travel the 5-km stretch from General Maxilom to Barangay Guadalupe. Travel normally takes 30 minutes in this part of the city.

“Traffic was heavy during the event but it was moving. The good thing about it was that there was no reported traffic accident,” said Rafael Yap, executive director of the Cebu City Traffic Operations Management office.

Yap said the traffic buildup started at 3:30 p.m. and normalized when the Green Loop experiment ended at 7:30 p.m. At least 30 traffic enforcers were deployed along the roads, he said.

Congestion was especially heavy along road intersections because these were not designed to accommodate the counterflow of traffic. “If city leaders want to continue this (road-sharing), they have to consider redesigning intersections to accommodate any changes in traffic flow,” Yap said.

Road-sharing participants reached 1,500 to 2,000, Canton said.

Mark Encallado and about 20 other members of Lowriders Bicycle Club went around Fuente Osmeña Circle riding their bicycles. “This is good experimentation because this allows us to be on the street without worrying for our safety,” Encallado said.

Maria Shiela Padilla and her partner, Jose Sotes, also strolled near Fuente Osmeña Circle in wheelchairs to watch the bikers.

But Yap said the city should avoid a repeat of the road-sharing scheme. “If we look at the city management perspective, it’s something that may happen again, but I suggest that they do more information dissemination before they implement another experiment,” he added.

Event organizers have yet to assess Sunday’s outcome, Canton said. With report by Doris Bongcac