Baguio City councilor proposes car congestion, ecology fees

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 Php200USD 3INR 289EUR 3CNY 25 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 Php400USD 7INR 578EUR 6CNY 50 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 Php1,000USD 17INR 1,445EUR 16CNY 124.

Moreover, Another measure from Avila seeks to impose a Php50USD 0.85INR 72EUR 0.81CNY 6 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