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[av_heading heading=’ On target: Iloilo City speed devils ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=”]
BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
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Thursday, May 18, 2017
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ILOILO City – Beginning next month, traffic enforcers will be using radar speed guns to catch drivers violating the city’s ordinance limiting the speed of motor vehicles.
The city government purchased five speed guns to enforce Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283, said City Administrator Hernando Galvez.
Traffic enforcers will initially focus on the Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue (Diversion Road), one of the city’s busiest roads.
“Ini nga lugar masami may aksidente sang salakyan,” said Galvez.
A radar speed gun measures the speed of moving objects. It may be hand-held, vehicle-mounted or static. It gauges the speed of the objects at which it is pointed by detecting a change in frequency of the returned radar signal caused by the Doppler effect, whereby the frequency of the returned signal is increased in proportion to the object’s speed of approach if the object is approaching, and lowered if the object is receding.
The Transportation Management and Traffic Regulation Office (TMTRO) held a dry run on the use of the speed guns a few weeks ago.
Galvez said the licenses of drivers caught violating the speed limit ordinance will be confiscated.
Violators who refuse to surrender their driver’s licenses will be arrested and detained.
Under Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283, the maximum speed for automobiles and motorcycles from the corner of General Luna Street to Sen. Benigno Aquino Jr. Avenue and up to Barangay Ungka, Jaro district is 60 kilometers per hour (kph). For trucks and buses, the speed limit is 50 kph.
On roads from Barangay Sambag, Jaro to Central Philippine University, Jaro Plaza, Iloilo provincial capitol, and General Luna to Barangay Mohon in Arevalo district, the speed limit for automobiles and motorcycles is 40 kph. For trucks and buses, it is 30 kph.
It is 40 kph maximum for automobiles and motorcycles that pass JM Basa Street going to Fort San Pedro, while it is 30 kph for trucks and buses.
Within the City Proper, the maximum allowable speed for automobiles and motorcycles is 40 kph. For trucks and buses, it is 30 kph.
On the circumferential, radial and coastal roads, the speed limit for automobiles and motorcycles is 60 kph while for trucks and buses, 40 kph.
The admissible speed limit for automobiles and motorcycles in all other local or national roads, streets and highways here is 30 kph. For trucks and buses, it is 20 kph.
For transport groups in this city, speed limits are not a problem. “Most of the time, it’s the private vehicles that are overspeeding,” according to Raymundo Parcon, president of the Iloilo City Loop Alliance of Jeepney Owners and Drivers Associations (ICLAJODA), in a previous interview.
ICLAJODA drivers observe the speed limits that Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283 set, he stressed.
“The speed limit should be imposed on all types of vehicles be these public utilities or privately owned,” Parcon added.
The city council’s overriding concern in passing the ordinance was public safety, according to Councilor Joshua Alim, the proponent.
The city council identified the TMTRO as the primary city government arm to enforce Regulation Ordinance No. 2015-283.
Alim, however, said the speed limits are not applied during emergencies and law enforcement operations.
The penalties for violating the ordinance are:
* P200 fine and/or imprisonment of one day minimum to two months maximum for the first violation
* P500 fine and/or two months and one day minimum to four months maximum in prison for the second violation, and
* P1,000 fine and/or imprisonment of four months and one day minimum to six months maximum for the third and succeeding violations./PN
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