MABALACAT CITY – Tricycle equality is slated to be the norm in this city’s streets. Mayor Marino Morales has advised tricycle owners here to prepare for the imposition of a local ordinance requiring all local tricycles to have a clearance of no less than 10 inches between their flooring and the ground.
City Ordinance No. 25 was passed amid passengers complaining of tricycles with low sidecars that hit the ground during their ride. This also endangers the safety of passengers, said local board members who backed the ordinance.
Morales reminded the thousands of tricycle owners and drivers here that the law provided them six months to make the necessary adjustments in their tricycles, more popularly known to local folk as “trikes.”
“Since the law was passed last Aug. 6, it will be enforced fully by Feb. 6 next year. So I ask them to be prepared so they would not be caught by deadline,” Morales said. The ordinance imposes a fine of P1,000 will be meted for first time violators; P2,000 for second time violators and P3,000 for third time violators and succeeding offenses.
“This ordinance is to provide convenience to the riding public who don’t feel secure riding trikes with low sidecars which is also more difficult to board and alight from. This will also solve conflicts among the trike drivers over passengers who opt to ride in higher trikes at transport terminals,” said Mabalacat City Federation of Tricycle Operators and Drivers Association (MCFTODA) President Marvin Dela Cruz.
Morales issued the reminder during the induction recently of the new officers of the association. Tricycles have remained the major means of transportation for local folk in the barangays in this city where no less than 5,000 such vehicles ply undefined routes.
