ACTING chairman Thomas Orbos of the Metro Manila Development Authority said lack of discipline among drivers hampers the implementation of measures to improve the flow of traffic along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
Orbos made the statement following Friday’s dry-run operation of the Edsa southbound zipper lane (counterflow) for motorists going to Makati City, which observers described as a “failure.”
Among the infractions were the loading and unloading of bus passengers to non-designated areas and the wanton disregard of both public and private motorists to traffic rules.
“I don’t think it’s a failure, but it’s a lack of improvement. Probably half of those who especially on the southbound I guess it is a success, [and] for those in the northbound, I would understand if they would call it a failure. But again, we are doing our best and we are doing what we can given our situation right now. If we made a mistake, we are sorry but while I am here I will have to do what I could,” said Orbos.
The MMDA chief said he is planning to cancel the full implementation of the scheme on Monday to prepare some mechanism to improve the traffic measure.
“We we will go back to our drawing board and we will try it again. With the lessons learned from now, we saw certain things, not just the zipper lane, but the behavior of the public utility transport,” he added. “We are not saying we were wrong, what we are saying is for the convenience of everyone we will go back and try to make it even better for motorists.”
Aside from the various offenses committed by motorists, the lack of traffic enforcers also hampers MMDA operations.
To fill in the much-needed work force to man and direct traffic on the roads, Orbos tapped other enforcement support units of the agency to do the field work.
He said the MMDA badly needs field personnel, particularly traffic enforcers, to man and direct traffic flow on the streets and to strictly continuously implement numerous road measures and schemes, including the Nose-In/Nose Out policy.
Orbos has began making an inventory of the personnel of the agency’s support units, reviewing then selecting people who could be dispatched on the roads to direct traffic flow.
“We are in dire need of field personnel to be deployed in all of the major roads in Metro Manila. We are spreading ourselves thin, so to speak, just to cope with the requirements to fully man and supervise traffic on the streets,” he said.