By Gabriela Baron
Citing “horrendous traffic,” the local government of Baguio will be reviving its “Hop On, Hop Off” (HoHo) buses for tourists with private vehicles coming to the city beginning July 15.
Engr. Aloysius Mapalo, Supervising Administrative Officer of the City Tourism Office, said tourists coming to the city will be asked to park their vehicles at the Baguio Convention Center grounds and take the HoHo bus.
Data from the portal visita.baguio.gov.ph showed that an average of 50,000 to 60,000 weekly tourist arrivals where bulk or about 40,000 arrives from Friday to Sunday.
“In just one day, we may have an accumulated tourists of 30,000 tourists in a day during peak season and this will really cause traffic all over the city particularly along Botanical Garden and Mines View Park,” Mapalo said.
Mapalo furthered that Botanical Garden now receives an average of 2,000 daily visitors during weekdays and increases to 5,000 daily during weekends per day and rise even more up to 7,000 daily during holidays and peak season.
“Supposing half of the daily tourist arrival have their own cars, we can estimate more than 800 vehicles passing Botanical Garden during weekdays and even more during weekends so really there is a lot of traffic in the area,” Mapalo explained.
“The idea is ‘park and ride’ to decongest private vehicles parking in our streets and parks,” he added.
Two HoHo buses will operate 30 minutes interval time per trip The first trip leaves Baguio Convention Center at 8:30 a.m. while the last trip is scheduled at 6:20 p.m. departing from Wright Park to Gov. Pack Road.
There will be seven trips daily which can serve 290 tourists a day and be able to reduce at least 50 cars from clogging the streets in one circuit.
