The plan by Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama to ban motorcycles from the South Road Properties may well be within his authority to impose. And it may indeed do away with accidents in the area involving motorcycles. The logic of Rama is simple. The number of motorcycle accidents at the SRP is on the rise. Eliminate motorcycles and you have no motorcycle accidents. Simple, no?
But that only goes to show how simplistic the approach is. And it does not really solve the problem but merely transferring it. The motorcycles that will be banned from the SRP will have to pass somewhere else. Transplanting these motorcycles to other streets only increases the chances of accidents involving motorcycles in these streets.
From what we have heard, the common gripe among motorists who frequently use the SRP is that it is ill-lighted, if there is any light at all. And what speed limits may have been imposed -- from 60 kph to a ridiculously slow 30 kph -- are largely ignored. And why are speed limits ignored? Because there is no one to enforce the speed limits.
To those who have not seen it, there is a very nice looking vehicle that, by its markings, identify it as belonging to the SRP police. SRP police? Is there such an animal? If there is such a thing as an SRP police, then why is it not visible on the SRP when policing and patrolling the area, as what the name suggests, is what it should have been doing.
If the SRP police, if it really exists, had been up to its job of policing and patrolling the SRP, then there would have been less of the accidents that has so gotten the goat of Mayor Rama. Had the SRP police, if it really exists, only made itself visible day in and day out, motorists passing through this highway would have been very careful about their driving. And when drivers are careful about their driving, it follows that there would be less road accidents.
But the SRP police is an unheard of entity. You only know there is probably an SRP police whenever you see that beautiful vehicle bearing its name. It is not dressed up like the rest of the normal police vehicles. It has looks that are its own, giving the impression that it is not meant to do dirty police work but is just for show.
If the SRP police cannot enforce road regulations in the SRP, then maybe Mayor Rama should throw in the regular police, as well as the Citom, to enforce the rules there. And Mayor Rama should understand the problem first before proposing the solution. The problem at the SRP is simple. There is no law enforcement present in the area. And it is not conducive to night driving because of the absence of lights and other driving aids.