A Baguio City councilor proposed to impose car congestion and ecology car fees to visitors and residents alike in hopes to turn around the worsening traffic. in the area.
“The unending traffic fiasco in the Summer Capital has become an inevitable reality. Extraordinary times require extraordinary measures and while we are no experts in traffic management, we must now make a bold move to tame traffic as our City is drowning in vehicles,” -Councilor Edgar Avila
The new city ordinance, passed on first reading just this week, aims to impose a Php200 congestion charge per day on vehicles such as cars, jeepneys, vans, and delivery trucks that will be driving into the city’s major and minor streets which leads to tourist destinations in the area. As for tourist buses, a Php400 charge will be applied per day. Do note that these charges will be only applied during Regular and Special Non-Working Holidays. Drivers who will fail to comply with the congestion charge will be fined Php1,000.
Moreover, Another measure from Avila seeks to impose a Php50 ecological fee and will be charged one time only for local and foreign tourists.
Avila’s proposal aims to discourage the influx of vehicles while at the same time, become a source of funds to finance traffic-related development plans. The ecological fee, on the other hand, will go to Baguio’s Environment and Parks Office to bolster the protection of the environment and parks in the city. He also said that the funds will be collected by the City Treasurer, which in turn could also deputize other local institutes as sub-agents to effectively collect these.
Source: Sunstar
welcome to the feelippines
Good in principle but implementation is a question mark.