The post on Twitter from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) read simply: “Expect moderate-heavy traffic at Edsa Megamall due to 4-day sale.”
The transportation situation in the metropolis has gone from inconvenient to absurd. The government’s response has been a complete failure, and comments from responsible government officials are ridiculous. The idea that heavy traffic is not life-threatening was bad enough. But now the idea that the best solutions are either taking half the vehicles off the road through an odd-even scheme or a four-day workweek shows the administration is clueless about what to do.
Actually, the most responsible comment came from the MMDA, which said that the traffic situation in the metropolis is expected to get worse in the next 15 years. However, the reason for the 15-year window is that the government will start implementing the Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas by 2030.
The administration has taken much criticism also for saying that the problem is because of increasing national wealth that has also increased the number of cars and other vehicles on the road. The above-mentioned tweet from the MMDA about a shopping-mall sale creating heavier traffic would seem to support the government’s position. But if our memory can go back farther than 2010, a weekend sale at the Megamall has always caused traffic problems even when the Philippines was seen as an economic “basket-case.”
Everyone is becoming a traffic-management expert with a multitude of ideas on how to solve the problem. For example: There are too many unnecessary buses plying Edsa. The problem is not the amount of cars, but the fact that Filipinos are terrible drivers. Cars should be limited, and public mass transportation be given priority on Metro Manila roads.
We are as frustrated about the situation as you are. We are just as tired talking about Manila traffic as you are hearing about it.
More than a decade ago, the Thailand government commissioned a study about Bangkok traffic. Bangkok police then had a special “flying squad” just to assist women about to give birth who were stuck in traffic. The study concluded that it would take an investment of $4 billion (a massive amount then); and by the time the money was spent and all the improvements made, road use would have increased so much that the situation would have barely improved at all.
In our case, every solution offered is nothing more than a Band-Aid approach that does not deal with the cause of the problem.
A 40-year-old picture we found of the Guadalupe Bridge on Edsa looks much as it does today, although vehicle capacity has increased tenfold. What has greatly changed, though, is the population around the bridge, which has increased by, perhaps, 500 times.
The only long-term solution to Metro Manila’s traffic congestion is to decongest the metropolis. Otherwise, we can wait until 2030 for the government’s master plan to get deployed. We are willing to bet we will still be fighting heavy traffic to get to Megamall’s three-day sale in 2030 if we do nothing to decongest Metro Manila.
3 comments
To be honest, Metro Manila is like a big toilet bowl.
Decongestion is imperative, but I could not imagine how to do that when you don’t stop cramming the metropolis with high rise condominiums. I think that the real cause of the problem has always been the Filipino’s lack of common sense.
20 – 10 years ago, nagTRY ang maraming Pilipino (middle class) na iwan ang Metro Manila (decongestion) at tuluyang MANIRAHAN in nearby provinces (CAVITE, LAGUNA, BATANGAS and PAMPANGA) lalo na nung lumaganap na parang KABUTI ang mga SUBDIVISIONS, mga PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN ng mga REAL ESTATE DEVELOPERS…
AFTER 15 years, FRUSTRATED ang marami. NAGBALIKAN ang karamihan sa QC, MAKATI, MANILA, PASAY, MARIKINA PARANAQUE and PASIG areas at IBINENTA (for sale) ang unit at nagtyaga na lamang sa TOWNHOUSES, CONDO or nangupahan na lamang…. WHY..bakit bumalik sa METRO MANILA ?
WHY? mga INSTITUTIONS na hindi available in the nearby provinces. like; EDUCATION INSTITUTION (UP, ATENEO others), best HOSPITAL, MARKETS, GOVERNMENT INSTITUTIONS, AIRPORT and PORT area, PLAZA – PARK, SPORT EVENTS INSTITUTION, MEDIA, SECURITY and others..
for 10 – 30 minutes, (walking distance / car) madali nilang na-access ang mga pinagtatrabahuan, paaralan ng kanilang anak at mga institutions…yun lang ang dahilan…..
nagTRY ang MARAMI na tumira sa nearby province, kaya lang. after 10 years..frustrated at NAGBALIKAN ule sa METRO MANILA….