METRO Manila mayors on Thursday rejected the proposal to implement a new three-digit number coding in the National Capital Region citing the lack of time and preparation for the scheme.
“They [mayors] rejected it. Too soon and too tight they said. We need more time to further study this measure,” said Thomas Orbos, acting chairman of the Metro Manila Development Authority, during a meeting of the Metro Manila Council in Makati City Thursday.
The MMC, instead, suggested that the MMDA and other members of the Inter-agency Council on Traffic should intensify the road clearing operations against illegally parked vehicle, basketball courts, sidewalk vendors and other obstructions on both main and secondary roads.
“This is why the Department of the Interior and Local Government joined this meeting to help us intensify the implementation of the clearing operations. The department will ask barangay officials to assist our enforcers in the clearing operations. They [barangays] will be obliged to help us,” said Orbos.
“The guidelines will be threshed out by the DILG on how to take out illegally parked vehicles, the obstructions including basketball courts, humps, and unnecessary gates. First, we will identify the roads that are needed to be clear like arterial roads,” he added.
DILG Secretary Ismael Sueno also attended the MMC meeting held at the Holiday Inn Makati.
The MMC, which is composed of the 17 mayors in the NCR, is the policy-making body of the MMDA.
Quezon Rep. Danilo Suarez proposed to the Department of Transportation to temporarily enforce the three-digit coding on or before December to further improved the traffic situation in Metro Manila, particularly along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue, during the holiday season.
“Before December comes in, the DOTr should have a prescribed schedule of banned vehicles per day (i.e. 1,2,3 for December 1; 4,5,6 for December 2; and so on). This must be implemented until the end of the Three Kings’ Day celebration, when we will revert to the two-digit number coding scheme,” Suarez said in his Manila Standard column.
Suarez is expecting that the scheme will reduce 30 to 40 percent decrease in the volume of vehicles in Metro Manila.
The Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, or the number coding scheme, was devised to keep vehicles out of major thoroughfares on certain days based on the last digit of the license plate.
The system corresponds to 1 and 2 for Monday, 3 and 4 for Tuesday, 5 and 6 for Wednesday, 7 and 8 for Thursday, and 9 and 0 for Friday.
The window hours refer to the five-hour (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) period, but removing this means the vehicles covered by the Number Coding Scheme may not pass Edsa and other major thoroughfares.
Suarez made the proposal after the slight success and improvement of traffic on Edsa following the suspension of the so-called window hours for private vehicles in the number coding scheme.
But Orbos said the proposal may be implemented but not during the holiday season this year as suggested by the Metro Manila mayors.
MMDA traffic enforcers admitted that the lack of cooperation from barangay officials hampers the government’s campaign against illegally parked vehicles and other obstructions on the roads, especially on secondary streets designated by the government as Mabuhay Lanes or alternate routes used by private motorists avoiding the congested Edsa.
“The good thing is [DILG] Secretary Mike Sueno came here, joined the meeting and agreed to have an intensify anti-illegal parking and clearing operations. We have to intensify the enforcement on the local level and proper coordination is needed. The barangay captains, we are hoping, they will help us. Secretary Sueno assured us that they [barangay] will cooperate,” said Orbos.
The government is implementing Mabuhay Lane routes scheme to help private motorists avoid heavy traffic, specially during the holiday rush.
The 17 special lanes in selected areas in Metro Manla were opened as alternate routes to shorten the travel time during Christmas holidays, when traffic flow is expected to be heavy.
Records showed that traffic volume rises 15 to 20 percent between November and December. It also showed that “midnight sales” or extended mall business hours contribute to the worsened traffic in the metropolis during the Yuletide season.
MMDA officials admitted that the increasing number of private vehicles is the major cause of the traffic jams along Edsa. They say more than 6,800 vehicles are using Edsa per hour in one direction higher than the artery’s capacity of 6,000 vehicles per hour.