Unsafe for Shoppers

I sent the following letter to the editor to local papers. It was published in Sun.Star Cebu the other day:

The Fully Booked shop in Ayala Center Cebu’s The Terraces is a welcome addition to the growing number of bookstores in the city. Books previously unavailable locally are brought closer to readers of Cebu and neighboring provinces.

I’ve been to FullyBooked not a few times and noticed that many people enter and exit the shop through the entrance facing Mindanao Avenue. I would like to point out the following danger:

Immediately to the left of this entrance is the basement parking exit. Exiting cars would have to accelerate to climb the exit ramp to the road. Meanwhile, all traffic from this exit is directed right in front of the Fully Booked entrance. This makes it difficult for a car to stop if an unmindful pedestrian suddenly crosses its path.

Hence, people crossing the street to enter Fully Booked or vice versa faces the danger of getting hit by cars heading out of the parking lot. Likewise, a car suddenly putting on its brakes to avoid hitting a pedestrian in its path can also cause accidents among the cars still in the exit ramp.

It is good that traffic enforcers are assigned nearby. Perhaps, plans to set up railings in the said location can be made so that pedestrians will cross the road some distance away from the parking exit. I hope the Ayala Center Cebu and Fully Booked management could look into this to ensure the safety of shoppers.