No more tricycles and pedicabs in national highways – DILG
The Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) is reiterating to all city and municipal mayors to ban pedicabs and tricycles in all national highways.
“For safety reasons, no tricycle or pedicab should operate on national highways utilized by four-wheel vehicles greater than four tons and where normal speed exceeds 40 kilometers per hour,” said DILG officer-in-charge, Secretary Eduardo M. Año in a news release last Tuesday.
Año said that even with the government recognizing the opportunities for livelihood these tricycles and pedicabs give to Filipinos, allowing them on national highways “poses hazards to other motor vehicles, the riding public, and even to the drivers themselves”.
He adds that they may only be allowed by the concerned Sangguniang Panlungsod (city council) or Sangguniang Bayan (municipal council) to use these main highways if there are no alternative routes.
Aiming for the safety of the locals
This comes after the DILG receiving reports from its field offices of unregulated operation of tricycles and pedicabs along main thoroughfares.
Año said that under the Local Government Code, city and municipal mayors are authorized to regulate the operation of these vehicles within their territorial jurisdiction, through their respective sanggunians.
Año also urges local authorities to the provisions in Memorandum Circular 2007-01 on the basic considerations in the preparation of city or municipal franchise and regulatory ordinances for tricycles and pedicabs.
The memorandum also include the banning of their operations along major routes and prohibiting them from carrying excess passengers and goods beyond their capacity.
