The City Council has started looking into the request of the Ayala Traffic management to allow it enforce traffic rerouting within the Cebu Business Park for the purpose of improving the flow of traffic in the area.
The request of Ayala Traffic, coursed through City Traffic Operations Management, involves the reversal of traffic flow direction along Bohol Avenue, which is between Luzon Avenue and Mindanao Avenue.
Jose Jeffrey James Orbita, Ayala’s technical assistant, wrote Citom: “We are currently experiencing traffic flow problem due to several new buildings were operating in our park. Just last month we consult this problem to our Makati Traffic consultant Mr. Salvador Tan for a long term solution.”
Orbita said that after deliberating with the company’s traffic management, they decided to reverse the flow of traffic along Bohol Avenue and reduce the traffic volume at Cardinal Rosales Avenue, Mindanao Avenue, and Luzon Avenue, where most passenger jeepneys pass through.
Citom executive officer Arnel Tancinco then wrote the City Council about the request of Ayala Traffic Management, saying that the rerouting would be carried out temporarily only for experimental purposes.
Bohol Avenue is located in front of the mall facing Archbishop Reyes Avenue, which will already be going towards Luzon Avenue. With the rerouting, Talamban-route jeepneys would be affected and also the entrance and exit driveways of the parking area along Bohol Avenue.
The Ayala management said that a driveway, exclusively for entry to the mall parking lot only, would be opened along Archbishop Reyes Avenue.
Orbita earlier said that the traffic rerouting would allow jeepney access near Ayala Center Cebu entrances and accommodate clients and visitors to the newly constructed IT building Cebu Tower.
Originally, the Ayala Traffic management planned to conduct last October 6 a dry run of the rerouting to check for any flaw before it would be carried out but the City Council had deliberated on the matter only last Wednesday.
Meanwhile, the council also directed the committee on transportation and communications chaired by councilor Sylvan “Jack” Jakosalem to look into the parking charges that Ayala imposes on car owners.
Councilor Rodrigo Abellanosa further wanted the committee to ask why Ayala collects fees from car owners for parking in the mall’s parking lots because Cebu Business Park, where the Ayala mall is located, is an IT park and the city has jurisdiction over it.
Jakosalem said there is an existing memorandum of agreement between the mall’s management and the Citom on the management of traffic within the Cebu Business Park.
Citom had even trained mall guards on enforcing traffic rules in the area, as deputized traffic enforcers. — Wenna A. Berondo/RAE