EDSA has become the country’s symbol of congestion, with bottlenecks and hours of delay becoming the new normal for the everyday Filipino in Metro Manila. The chief of the government’s infrastructure cluster, however, has vowed to change this by rerouting vehicular traffic from the metropolis’s main artery to new roads in the next three years.
Public Works Secretary Mark A. Villar said the key to smooth sailing on Edsa is the reduction of vehicles on the road. He estimates that as many as 300,000 cars have to be removed from Edsa to achieve an “acceptable level of traffic.”
“When you talk about Metro Manila, you don’t have to look further than Edsa as the symbol of congestion,” he said. “We need to take out 250,000 to 300,000 cars from Edsa to bring it back to capacity.”
It is estimated that almost 800,000 vehicles pass daily through Edsa, which has a rated capacity of only 280,000 vehicles per day.
Villar explained that to remove this number of vehicles from Edsa requires the government to deliver critical road infrastructure to serve as alternatives for motorists and commuters.
He listed the following facilities as well as their projected vehicular traffic as a means to reducing the number of cars on Edsa: Skyway Stage 3 (100,000 vehicles), Connector Road (50,000 vehicles), C-6 (50,000 vehicles), Pasig-Santa Monica Bridge and Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge (50,000 vehicles).
“When all these are finished, we will be able to bring back Edsa to its former state, which is acceptable traffic. Rest assured this dream of Edsa is not a dream. It’s come from the point of inevitability. We will decongest Edsa,” Villar said.
When all these have been completed, and vehicular traffic has been transposed to other roads, Villar said travel time from Edsa’s ending point in the north to the south would be around 15 minutes “at normal speed.”