BAGUIO CITY, Philippines — The city government plans to construct more parking buildings to address the influx of tourists and increase in the volume of vehicles in the city.
“We need a minimum of about 14,000 and a maximum of 22,000 public parking slots,” Mayor Benjamin Magalong said.
He said there are around 56,000 registered vehicles in Baguio, including 15,000 motorcycles.
“We are looking at eight available lots. We need more than 30 parking buildings to be able to generate around 14,000 public parking slots. Based on our inventory, right now, we only have around 2,007,” Magalong said.
Among the areas being considered for multilevel parking buildings are the compounds of the Bureau of Fire Protection, Government Service Insurance System, Baguio Convention and Cultural Center and Bayan Park.
In January, the city government started collecting data on transport traffic on a daily basis.
Magalong said data collected “uncovered flaws” in the transport system. He expressed concern that these flaws would affect the implementation of the city government’s smart urban mobility and transportation system.
The system aims to modernize the public transportation system and provide a long-term solution to the perennial traffic problem.