As the dry run of the new traffic re-routing scheme in Dumaguete enters its second week, the local government announced it was tapping “parking boys” in the traffic experiment.
City Councilors Alan Gel Cordova and Agustin Perdices have urged the nearly 200 “parking boys” to cooperate in the implementation of the new traffic system, and to avoid vices while working, a media release from City Hall said Monday.
Also referred to as watch-your-car boys (some of whom are older women), “parking boys” normally guide drivers in parking their motorbikes and four-wheeled vehicles properly and neatly; ensure that the vehicles are not stolen; and guide the drivers as they return to the road.
Some offer to clean the vehicles, or use their initiative to cover the windsheilds or the motorbike saddles with carton to protect them from the heat of the sun.
They sport huge identification cards, and often give hand signals with their whistles.
The parking boys have now been asked to help guide commuters, tourists, and motorists using the new traffic system.
The Traffic Management Office, led by Danny Atillo, has been closely monitoring the activities of the parking boys to make sure they comply with the requirements to get identification cards for accountability purposes, and to stay in their assigned areas to avoid disputes among them.
Meanwhile, Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo has ordered the temporary assignment of 20 members of the Auxiliary Police and 10 members of Task Force Dumaguete to augment the 85 traffic aides to enforce the new traffic system.
He clarified the new traffic scheme is only one of the solutions being pursued to ease congestion in the CBD.
Other solutions include the installation of Closed Circuit Television cameras to apprehend violators without necessarily accosting them in the middle of the streets; clearing of the streets from illegally-parked vehicles and other obstructions; providing more parking spaces within government offices, and in campuses of private schools; opening up of new roads; and the completion of the Circumferential Road to serve as alternate route of trucks and vans. (JFP)
