By Rea Cu | Researcher & Dennis D. Estopace | Editor
Conclusion
HOW many cars must one Filipino family have? More than two even, for some.
“Those who are well-off in life, they buy their kids cars, so as they would need not be bothered by the daily hassles of commuting, so each family member has his or her own car,” Isuzu Gencars Inc. Sales and Marketing Manager Ariel Raymundo told the BusinessMirror. According to Raymundo, these families can do so because the monthly rate is cheap.
“Nowadays, we will surely feel the presence of traffic [congestion] more, since the prices of gas rolled back, meaning people will most likely use their cars more,” Raymundo said. He added that rollbacks in prices of diesel and gasoline have also attracted consumers to buy cars.
Raymundo said another factor influencing consumer behavior is marketing promotion campaigns by companies. “Promos help entice customers with the drop in car prices, as well,” he said. “Even auto dealers give promos to attract more customers to purchase vehicles, car dealers give huge cash discounts to finally push the customers to buy.”
Passers-by
HOW many cars, to note, are on the roads of Metro Manila?
The stretch of the Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa), for one, carries 170,000 vehicles a day while Circumferential Road 5 (C-5) sees 136,000 vehicles passing its stretch on the average. The Osmeña Highway has 115,000 cars per day and Roxas Boulevard has 75,000 vehicles per day.
A total of 153,206 vehicles per day traverse Pasay from Edsa to F.B. Harrison Street, while an estimated 113,276 vehicles per day use the Edsa-Taft Avenue route. Pasay City local government officials estimated a total of 266,482 vehicles per day went through the roads within city borders in 2014.
Current government data based on 2007 statistics showed the number of vehicles traversing the country’s roads is growing at an average 3.12 percent for sedans, 5.88 percent for utility vehicles and 21.26 percent for sport-utility vehicles. The number of trucks traversing the roads is growing at an average 4.72 percent, while buses at 3.35 percent. The number of motorcycles and tricycles is growing at an average 12.13 percent and trailers at 1.92 percent.
In a report published by the Makati local government for the year 2011, the number of vehicular trips conducted daily in the city alone is around 13 percent. From the total vehicular trips in Metro Manila of 4.5 million daily, 594,872 trips come from the district of Makati.
Fifty-five percent of the total vehicular trips in Makati City are cars, about 25 percent are jeepneys and 14 percent are trucks. A low 6 percent are buses.
As the population of Metro Manila grows at a rate of 1.8 percent annually, the number of vehicles is expected to, likewise, increase.
A safe conjecture would be the growth in people buying and using vehicles would lead to more congestion on Metro Manila roads.
Impact
TRAFFIC congestion in Metro Manila costs the country around 5 percent of annual GDP, which accounts for P15 billion in total losses.
A report by Segundo E. Romero, Danielle Guillen, Lorenzo Cordova and Gina Gatarin added that the losses are in terms of the inefficient use of man hours and fuel. The report titled “Land-Based Transport Governance in the Philippines: Focus on Metro Manila for the year 2014” also included the discomfort experienced by commuters and motorists as a loss due to traffic congestion.
The Japan International Credit Agency (Jica) noted that the Philippine economy lost in 2014 an estimated P2.4 billion a day due to traffic congestion. This is expected to grow to about P6 billion per day by the year 2030 if there will be no action done to address the traffic problems the country continues to face.
Hard, soft
THE government is not sitting idly by the steering wheel, if we are to believe Public Works Secretary Rogelio L. Singson.
According to Singson, road infrastructure development is one of the ways the government addresses the problem of traffic congestion.
“The DPWH [Department of Public Works and Highways], as early as 2011, identified key road projects, either ongoing or new, for Metro Manila and within a 200-kilometer radius to improve and decongest Metro Manila,” Singson said. “In addition an interagency effort is under way to improve the capacity of Edsa, giving priority to buses with the exclusive use of bus lanes.”
Jose Regin F. Regidor, a professor of the Institute of Civil Engineering at the University of the Philippines Diliman, added “there are soft and hard measures being undertaken and planned for implementation” by the government.
Regidor explained that soft measures refer to policies and enforcement, which include number coding and the truck ban. He added that enforcement includes a variety of strategies and tactics that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, local government units and the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Groupare implementing throughout Metro Manila, including major roads like Edsa.
Hard measures, Regidor further said, refer to infrastructure projects like road construction and public transport projects. These include the elevated tollways (Ninoy Aquino International Airport Expressway and Skyway) and the extension of the Light Rail Transit Line 2 from Santolan to Masinag, he added.
“The hard infrastructure will take time. Typically, a new railway line would need six years from plan approval to operation. At least 54 km of additional rail lines could have been completed from 2010-2016; but the P-Noy administration will exit with zero additional rail line,” Rene S. Santiago, a traffic expert, explained.
“The actual completion of projects has an uncertainty about them,” Regidor said. “The target is to finish major projects like the Naia Expressway, Skyway connector and the LRT Line 2 Extension within the next three years.
However, Regidor said “other major projects that have not started yet won’t probably be finished within the term of the next president.”
“Travel-demand management measures, like the number coding and truck ban, have been implemented for many years now with the coding scheme having been tweaked several times already,” he added.
“These measures and projects are in different stages of implementation and procurement. More important, it is to fast-track our mass-transport system for Metro Manila,” Singson also said.
Sr. Supt. Moises Pagaduan of the PNP-HPG said actions and plans are already being implemented to help ease traffic congestion that motorists face every day.
“Strict implementation of traffic laws, rules and regulations and manning of the HPG personnel along the choke-holds of the metropolis can help lessen and alleviate traffic,” Pagaduan told the BusinessMirror.
(With a report by Mia Mallari)
Image credits: Nonie Reyes