The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority recently announced that it is considering again imposing the number coding system as a way to address the sudden congestion of vehicles that has hit close to pre-pandemic numbers. As noted by the MMDA, the flow of traffic on Edsa has slowed to 19 km/hr from its pandemic pace of 23 km/hr. The number coding scheme would be the logical go-to solution as it was in the past. But given that we already have tasted how life on Edsa is without such a volume reduction measure, as well as with public transport still not in full gear, maybe we can still push the envelope further without going back to the number coding scheme. It won’t hurt to try given that there are still some work that can be done to improve traffic along Edsa.
Allow me to suggest some areas that our traffic regulators may want to examine, some of them rehash of proven measures in the past:
- Implementation of the Christmas or Mabuhay lanes with the strict enforcement of towing of illegally parked vehicles along these lanes.
- Full use of the two new bridges, the Estrella-Pantaleon Bridge and the BGC-Ortigas Link Bridge as full Edsa/C-5 alternatives. Right now these two new bridges stop short of providing their intended use as viable alternatives because of the bottlenecks on the roads connecting to them. Clearing these roads of the bottlenecks would be a big help.
- Partial truck ban on Edsa, especially during peak hours, with most deliveries, especially to the malls, possibly scheduled from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
- Push to the inner roads the vehicles that are entering the malls along Edsa, especially at the corner of J. Vargas Ave., and maybe have them line up inside the Ortigas CBD rather than along Edsa.
- Also, consider moving mall hours later in the day and until late in the evening, with no mall sales during weekends.
- Temporary suspension of all road diggings—national, local government units or utilities, at least for the duration of the Christmas season.
- Banning of motorcycles on all underpasses and flyovers, especially since median lanes are now bus lanes.
- Strict enforcement of no loading and unloading, especially at the intersection of Taft/Edsa. Actually this narrow intersection is quite a mess with jeepneys, buses, trikes and all others loading and unloading. For some reason, there has always been vagueness on who is supposed to have jurisdiction here, whether it is the MMDA, Pasay City or IACT. My take here is let all of them just do it—enforce the law and clear this narrow but vital part of Edsa.
- Are jeepneys now allowed on Edsa? As far as I know, these vehicles are banned from this corridor but you have them now proliferating on both ends—in Caloocan and Baclaran.
- Full use of the old yellow lanes for vehicles (except of course the bike lanes), which are still hardly being utilized to the fullest, especially the one parallel to the flyovers and underpasses.
- Strict anti-jaywalking enforcement especially those who rush to the bus lanes; and the banning of itinerant vendors as well as mendicants on Edsa corridor. Not only does this contribute to the slowing down of vehicles, this also endangers the vendors as well as the motorists themselves.
- More visible presence of enforcers on the road. Yes, the no-contact apprehension scheme works but enforcer presence and action remains to be a good deterrent against would be traffic violators and therefore hasten the traffic flow on Edsa.
- Lastly, protect the bike lanes. If bikers see that cycling will be more efficient, then such lanes will be utilized more.
It’s understandable to consider volume reduction measures to address congestion on Edsa, especially during this Christmas season. But there may be other ways worth looking into. Also, I am one of those who agree to the notion that such volume reduction measures will only encourage people to consider buying extra vehicles. Then the traffic cycle continues again. We hope that the above suggestions be considered.
The author can be reached: thomas_orbos@sloan.mit.edu