BAGUIO CITY (Aug. 23) — Seven more staging areas for taxicabs here have been identified as proposed to the city government by drivers and operators, Mayor Reinaldo A. Bautista disclosed Thursday.

Acting on the clamor of taxi cab drivers and operators, Bautista announced that the city may add seven more staging areas. He said there are only two such taxi stands in the city’s central business district and these are on top of Session Road and in front of the Sunshine Grocery along Abanao Street.

According to Bautista, he has initially recommended the Harrison Road and the area in front of the Mido Inn at the foot of Session Road.

“Taxi drivers and operators want more staging areas,” he said. The city is considering seven more areas, namely the road below the city hall; Baguio General Hospital frontage; UP-Baguio-Convention Center; near the gate of the Saint Louis University along Bonifacio Street; Camp John Hay Rotunda and Baguio Health Department along T. Alonzo Street.

“We hope to amend, if not repeal City Ordinance 7-84, the city’s traffic ordinance, which is very old and inapplicable to the present traffic situation of the city,” Bautista disclosed.

A local who spoke on condition of anonymity said, he usually boards a taxi in the named proposed staging areas, where these usually park to wait for prospective passengers. “These usually park in those places mentioned by the mayor,” he told Nordis in a casual conversation.

Meanwhile, Bautista also announced the planned rationalization of the city’s parking spaces which he claimed now reaches some 4,347 jeepney units around the city. He said if plans would push the number would be reduced to 1,800 only.

The city has been experimenting on traffic routes in its bid at regulating traffic flow. Even the number-coding scheme had to be restored to minimize traffic jam, Bautista said during the same media forum. # Lyn V. Ramo for NORDIS