UNFAZED by criticisms against last month’s event, organizers behind the Road Rev vowed to continue the campaign to redesign roads and reduce air pollution and carbon emissions, but said there will be a change in strategy.
Law of Nature Foundation Inc. president Antonio Oposa Jr. said the Road Revolution program will be conducted at the barangay level in Cebu City.
Oposa, a lawyer, said convenors of the movement will look at positive and negative feedback about last month’s road closure to determine how to improve their next activity.
But he said he believes that the activity, despite the criticisms it received, “succeeded in making people think.”
In a forum with Sun.Star Cebu columnists, editors and reporters yesterday, Oposa said Road Rev was able to show the public that mindsets can change and that roads should not be exclusive to motorized vehicles.
Share
He said taxpayers who do not have motorized vehicles, who make up majority of the population, should have equal share of the road. This means government should allot part of the road for pedestrians and bikers.
“Road Rev (calls for) a review of the existing road system, make it more fair by giving everyone their share of road. Road Rev seeks to revise the road system to favor the five percent of people who cannot afford cars and motor vehicles,” said Oposa.
He said if this can be done Cebu, it can be a source of pride for Cebuanos.
“The challenge is not in changing Cebu, but making Cebu do it so well it becomes a model for the country,” he added.
He said three barangays in Cebu City, which he declined to name, have agreed to become the first to implement the movement’s principles.
Park
For 16 hours last June 12, the Road Rev was launched with the closure of Fuente Osmeña oval to vehicle traffic. The rotunda became a park for bikers, skateboarders, runners and hikers.
Road Rev joined the Ramon Aboitiz Foundation Inc., which organized a cultural program in downtown Cebu City, last Sept. 24. But the event irked many motorists and commuters.
Oposa told Sun.Star Cebu that Road Rev favors an alternative road scenario that includes space for a collective transport system, a bicycle lane, a sidewalk for pedestrians and a center island planted to vegetables and fruit-bearing trees.
Last June, the group submitted to the Cebu City Council a proposal to divide existing roads into four: 30 percent for all-weather sidewalks and pathways, 30 percent for bicycle lanes, 30 percent for Filipino-made “collective and non-pollutive” transportation systems and 10 percent for gardens.
At Sun.Star, Oposa made an illustration of how 60 people with their own vehicles could cause traffic congestion, as opposed to the same number of people in one collective mode of transportation, like a bus.
Oposa said the information drive of Road Rev would be implemented in different parts of the country in January next year, in cooperation with the Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines.
He said the Road Rev organizers, which include the Philippine Earth Justice Center Inc. and 350.org., have prepared a starter kit for local government units that want to implement a similar program.
