"The problem cannot be solved by MMDA alone, or in one fell swoop."
"The problem cannot be solved by MMDA alone, or in one fell swoop."
Proof positive that officials and personnel of the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) are at their wits’ end on how to untangle traffic congestion in the city, particularly along Edsa, is the recent pronouncement by their spokesperson that they would welcome suggestions or recommendations from the public on how to deal with it, but with the condition that these should be backed up by research or evidence.
That raises the question: Why can’t the agency come up with doable solutions themselves, since that’s what they’re being paid for with taxpayers’ money?
Or are they simply being incompetent?
We see on TV news, for instance, that the MMDA headquarters has a war room with banks of giant monitors for close-circuit television or CCTV showing the traffic situation in key areas of Edsa and other main thoroughfares. We also see their staff seemingly intently watching the CCTV at all times. But for what purpose? Once they see traffic build up in a particular area, they should be getting in touch with traffic enforcers on the ground to untangle the mess. But from where we sit, all the millions of pesos spent for those giant monitors seem to be money down the drain as horrible traffic greets motorists and commuters on a daily basis.
Traffic bottlenecks, of course, may be traced to various factors: Vehicle smash-ups that take forever to investigate and unravel, flooding, road repairs, and road diggings by public utilities, among others.
But the MMDA has found a convenient excuse for its rank failure to solve traffic congestion: Too many private vehicles on the road. Their solution: The number-coding scheme that seeks to reduce the number of vehicles running on main roads by at least 20 percent on any given day. But vehicle owners have found a way to circumvent this by simply getting another vehicle as they find public transportation inadequate for their needs.
The unified vehicle reduction scheme has been in effect since the 1990s but the traffic situation has not eased. In fact, it has gone from bad to worse in recent years.
There’s the suggestion to convert Edsa into a one-way street southbound, with the parallel C5 northbound only. But a traffic expert has shot down this proposal as stupid, since the crossroads that should connect the two thoroughfares should be just as wide as Edsa and C5, with at least 10 to 12 lanes each. Obviously, the proposal by an engineer wasn’t the product of much thought.
Another knee-jerk proposal is to expand the number-coding scheme by banning vehicles according to make or brand each day of the week. Thus, Toyotas would be banned from plying Edsa on Monday, Mitsubishis on Tuesdays and so on. This isn’t the product of much thinking either, and seems to be the reason why the MMDA has found it fit to remind the public that they welcome all proposals but please, do the proper research.
We can’t really fault the present MMDA for its dismal performance in solving the traffic problem in the city. The agency has come up with various ways to try and keep traffic flowing smoothly. Apart from the number-coding scheme, the agency has put up exclusive bus lanes and motorcycle lanes; hired more traffic enforcers; moved decisively in removing road obstructions and enforcing the rules against illegal parking; and lately, asked the help of the PNP’s Highway Patrol Group to augment civilian traffic enforcers along Edsa.
But the traffic problem cannot be solved by MMDA alone, or in one fell swoop. If Metro traffic has assumed Brobdingnagian proportions requiring draconian measures, it’s because of other factors: Poor long-term planning on the part of government, as it has failed to account for the rapid population growth in Metro Manila that requires huge investment in mass transport systems, such as extensive subway and ground-level railway systems.
The MMDA should stop punishing car owners with other ways to keep them from using city streets, given the woeful state of the public transport system in Metro Manila.
Perhaps the government should also tell the private sector, especially property developers, to refrain from undertaking more projects, such as big malls, along Edsa and other major thoroughfares, so as not to exacerbate the current traffic mess.
And by the way, whatever happened to the plan of the Department of Transportation to field the trains made in Dalian, China, to augment the capacity of MRT 3 along Edsa? I recall that the DoTr said the 48 trains purchased by the previous administration at enormous cost to taxpayers would be up and running by this time after technical issues have been resolved. But what’s holding it up?
ernhil@yahoo.com