The Interagency Council on Traffic has implemented several measures this early to temper the expected worsening of traffic congestion in Metro Manila come the Christmas holidays.
On late Tuesday the traffic-crisis body announced it has moved to remove the window hours for private vehicles traversing Edsa, C5, Roxas Boulevard, and the cities of Makati, Las Piñas, Mandaluyong and Alabang Zapote under the number-coding scheme starting October 17.
Window hours refer to the five-hour period—from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.—when motorists covered by the scheme on a specific day can still pass without being apprehended. A dry-run of the “no window hours” will be implemented from tomorrow until Friday.
The said moratorium will run until January 31.
In addition to this, the interagency body also coordinated with utility companies for the suspension of road digging and repairs starting November 1. This, according to the council, will run until January 9.
The moratorium shall cover all road works by utility companies and the government, but with the exclusion of flagship projects such as the Skyway 3.
It has, likewise, reached out to various mall operators in Metro Manila to discuss measures on how they can cooperate with the government in an attempt to alleviate traffic congestion in the metropolis during the Christmas Season.
“In the past years, authorities have observed that the conduct of mall sales cause traffic gridlock within the mall perimeters due to the influx of customers and vehicles going in and out of the malls,” an advisory from interagency body read.
Mall operators are, thus, expected to submit a detailed traffic-management plan to the council two weeks before their conduct of mall sales.
“The production of a traffic-management plan is imperative for both the mall operators and the government, so as not to effect inconvenience to motorists during the conduct of such events,” the advisory read.
Further, traffic-crisis body required mall operators to not schedule any mall sales during weekdays, but rather schedule it on weekends so as not to contribute to traffic congestion. Both parties settled to implement the agreement starting October 21.
It, likewise, urged mall owners to start adjusting their mall operating hours from 11 am to 11 pm starting November 1.
In the coming weeks, council “will set a dialogue with mall traffic managers to discuss requirements of the traffic-management plan, as well as the terms of cooperation between mall owners and the government to address traffic issues.”