The road user’s tax collected by the government from every motorist who registers his vehicle is a racket. Back in 2015, the Road Board, which spends the tax to identify major roadways which need to be improved for the benefit of motorists and commuters alike, was questioned by the Commission on Audit for discrepancies in the Board’s projects to the tune of P1.2 billion. Moreover, while the taxes are continuously collected, most of the roadways in Metropolitan Manila remain decrepit and dangerous to motorists and pedestrians.
Actually, the most dangerous road in the metropolis today is Elliptical Road around the Quezon Monument across Quezon City Hall.
After the war, the original Elliptical Road was a one-way, counter-clockwise road that went around the Quezon Monument grounds. An inner roadway was carved from the monument grounds sometime in the early 1960s after motorists who preferred to travel clockwise complained,
A wide island separated both lanes. Drainage outlets were built along the gutters of this island to prevent flooding on either side.
The inner lane became the clockwise lane, and it was accessible to motorists at its five key intersections—East Avenue, Commonwealth Avenue, Visayas Avenue, North Avenue, and Quezon Avenue. Traffic lights were installed at these intersections. A police car was always visible in at least two strategic areas around the circle.
In the 1960s, the rotunda at the base of the Quezon Monument was rather dark, and it became known as the city’s “lovers’ lane.”
By the 1980s, both lanes of Elliptical Road were further expanded to accommodate the increasing volume of traffic in the area. Lamp posts were installed at regular intervals on both sides of the road to make it safe to navigate at night. The lamps also discouraged robbers from roaming around there.
Sometime before the end of the twentieth century, the island separating both lanes of Elliptical Road was demolished and the entire road was converted into a one-way, counter-clockwise, free-for-all, 10-lane, dangerous thoroughfare.
The change was apparently triggered by a suggestion from a newspaper columnist sometime in late 1990s. That columnist urged that Elliptical Road should be redesigned like the one-way, wide lane circumferential road around the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. in the United States, so as to eliminate vehicular accumulation at the five key intersections of Elliptical Road. He also said that the measure will dispense with the need for traffic lights along the circular roadway.
While the suggestion may have been well-intended, it was a stupid idea plain and simple.
First, the circumference of the road around the Washington Monument is far larger than that of Elliptical Road. A larger circumference means far more road space for motorists to safely maneuver within the road itself.
Second, unlike its American counterpart, Elliptical Road in Quezon City has too many tributary streets that end at the circle itself—East Avenue, the exit road from the Quezon City Hall, Kalayaan Avenue, Maharlika Road beside the National Housing Authority head office, Commonwealth Avenue, Visayas Avenue, North Avenue, and Quezon Avenue—all of which become traffic choke points.
Since Elliptical Road has seven traffic choke points spread over a short circumference, this important roadway leaves very little room for vehicles to safely maneuver within the road itself. That is a recipe for vehicular accidents.
Third, Elliptical Road, unlike the road around the Washington Monument, is cluttered with inconsiderate jeepney drivers, mindless tricycle and pedicab drivers, reckless taxi drivers, and careless pedestrians who refuse to cross at pedestrian lanes, and who do not look where they are going because they are busy using their mobile phones.
As a consequence of the knee-jerk alteration of its traffic orientation, Elliptical Road has become the most dangerous road in the metropolis today. Vehicles entering Elliptical Road rush as fast as they can to the leftmost side or the center of the avenue, unmindful of the vehicles which are already inside the roadway, and which may collide with them. Jeepneys, tricycles and pedicabs randomly and heedlessly cross the paths of the vehicles already inside Elliptical Road and are headed towards exit points, particularly the exits at Commonwealth Avenue and at Quezon Avenue. Buses and taxicabs weave from one lane to another at their pleasure without signaling to other motorists. The buses push their weight around, and blow their horns to intimidate smaller vehicles.
Adding to the traffic nightmare are the many pedestrians who convert the outermost lane of Elliptical Road into an extension of the sidewalk, thus reducing the already limited available road space. The more reckless pedestrians cross the street at nighttime, wherever they please.
Elliptical Road is likewise an amalgam of concrete and asphalt distributed unevenly on its surface. Asphalted sections become large potholes when the asphalt melts during the rainy season, and during the yuletide season when traffic is heavy throughout the day.
Because the drainage system of Elliptical Road is at its center lane, a depression is inevitable in the middle of this road. This depression needlessly jolts the steering mechanism of vehicles driven by those who are unaccustomed to the uneven surface of the road. The jolts can trigger collisions with other vehicles.
After dark, there is hardly any illumination on either side of Elliptical Road. The darkest part of the circular avenue is its center. This segment is pitch-black at nighttime.
Adding to the danger to public safety are the plastic road cones left by Danny Lim’s incompetent Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) in the middle of Elliptical Road, particularly at the segment between Quezon Avenue and East Avenue. Because these cones have no reflectors on them, they are invisible at nights to motorists, especially on rainy nights.
Like the useless Road Board and Danny Lim’s inutile MMDA, Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista isn’t helping at all. Instead of brightening up Elliptical Road, Bautista wastes public money on useless decorative tiles that bear his initials and which are installed in numerous streets in the city.