Traffic In The Metro

It seems that the government is helpless with the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila. The other night in the news, I saw our president saying that an odd-even scheme may be implemented to ease the traffic in the city. The odd-even scheme is an alternate use of vehicles using the ending number of the plate. For example, all vehicles with odd number in the last digit of their plate number are not allowed on Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays and vehicles with even number in the last digit of their plates are not allowed on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. That is very restrictive and the Metro populace is already complaining.

More on this in my next posts. Let me just take time to list down the data.

 

@Ken Anderson, that is our wish and that wish is granted once a year - during Holy Week in the season of Lent, particularly Good Friday where most of the Metro Manila residents are in the provinces, beach resorts and other places for vacation, the roads in Metro Manila are like what you described - no cars around except ours.

The other night, there was a heavy downpour which caused minor floods. Commuters were stranded in the streets until midnight because of the heavy traffic that was not moving. Would you believe that the trafic is now the main fare of news reports? And what looks silly is that the center of the issue is EDSA - Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue - that is about 25 kilometers long. Where the traffic is always heavy at any given time. That's how silly the government people are, just 1 avenue that they cannot unclog. Maybe we need a rocket scientist to solve it.

 

Is there any form of mass transit there, such as light rail trains/trolleys, buses, etc? It seems that would be a solution, or even Park and Ride systems such as we have here in the Houston area. We actually have limited light rain and buses, as well, but mass transit is somewhat of a joke in Houston, compared to other major U.S. cities. The Park and Ride System involves satellite parking lots, where people drive to those lots in the suburban areas outside of the city, park their vehicles, and board express buses that take them into the city. The buses are somewhat of an upgrade from the basic city buses, I believe. I've never used the Park and Ride, because I've never worked downtown, and the schedule is mainly for 9-5ers, which didn't fit my hours when I attended classes downtown and worked in a different area.

 

@Diane Lane, we don't have the Park and Ride like what you have there. Our overhead train system called MRT (mass railway transit) is not adequate for the commuters. Worse, it has been suffering mechanical and technical breakdowns due to the age of the trains which started working in 1999 and the other railway line was constructed in the 1980s. Lately the government seems to admit their fault in not doing something to this problem 5 years ago. It takes 5 years to construct new roads or a new railway. And it takes 2 years for new trains to arrive after ordering. Now, now, this traffic is getting to the nerves of Metro Manilans.

 

In my area we have the underground train system but still have alot of traffic on the streets. When I have to go downtown I always ask can I get there by train. Not only is there alot of traffic there is no place to park and very expensive if you do find a place to park. I can't see the even odd system working in downtown Washington DC without a riot.

 

Haha, @Pat Baker There's no way it would work here, either. Texans love their vehicles.

@Corie Henson In Boston, we had raised trains, even with the buses and subway (underground trains), as well as commuter rail trains going from the city to the suburbs. The raised trains were phased out, though, and subways were expanded. Traffic is always a mess in large, well populated areas. There really isn't much here in the Houston area (which I rarely go to these days) as far as mass transit. I hope they can study other urban areas and come up with something that works for Manila, but you're right, it's going to take a lot of time and money, as well as forethought.

 

I guess there are thousands of suggestions to resolve the traffic in Metro Manila since it has already become a national concern. Aside from the usual traffic aides, the cops are now augmenting the force with their 170 men in the stretch of EDSA. Can you imagine that many enforcing traffic in a stretch of 23 kilometers? Yes, the official distance is 23.8 kilometers. And yet the heavy traffic is still there.

For my own 2 cents worth, the problem lies in congestion, not exactly of the vehicles but congestion of people in the Metro. Too many people migrating from the province cannot be accommodated in the city and since those migrants would find work so they will add to the commuters. That is one reason why the trains are always operating on over-capacity as evidenced by the long line to the ticket window.

Well?

 

What types of jobs are the people commuting to? I saw mention somewhere that the government had promised to work on widescale wifi, and if that were available, perhaps some of those workers would be able to stay at home and accomplish at least some of their work, without cluttering up the roads. Part of the solution in Boston was The Big Dig, which was a huge underground tunnel (larger and more modern than the other tunnels that had been used for years.) Basically the idea was to put the largest highway underground, to decrease the surface road congestion. Of course, the project ran way over the time anticipated, as well as expected budget, and involved a great deal of corruption, but it is open now. As expected, since there was corruption involved, there have been issues, such as concrete sections falling from the ceiling of the tunnel, which would make me scared to ride through it.

 

@Diane Lane, Metro Manila is a business district and commuters are mostly employees of companies located in the buildings plus construction workers since there are always buildings being constructed, road widenings and other public works. Some of those laborers are using bikes but no office employees would commute with a bike because of the hot climate here that would make you sweat.

In 1992, when the president was Fidel Ramos, true to his course as an engineer, he built the so called flyover that replaced the clogged junction (or crossing) and the skyway was also erected over the highway. So instead of an underground, he built an overground highway. However, after 10 years or so, the congestion starts to creep again. The coding scheme was implemented that restricted vehicles on the road one day a week practically trimming the road population by 20%. But the again, the congestion came back after some years.

Again, it boils down to overpopulation.

 

You must be on your way to work or have just arrived after traveling from 5 am to get to work? Or are you held up in that Monday heavy traffic and then writing/reporting about the traffic jam? Can you take a photo (if you're safe in your car, lol!). I hope you get to work soon. Take care!

 

@Avigail David, it is not good to post a photo of the traffic here because it is an ordinary traffic jam involving buses, public utility vans and jeepneys, private cars and motorcycles and bicycles. What I mean by ordinary is it is not interesting so I don't take photos. But to let you see how the traffic here looks, I guess you have to watch the video that my husband had created. It is an mtv of his original composition with the title Traffic In Metro Manila. Unfortunately the lyrics are in Filipino so you may not understand. But I bet you the video clips will definitely show you the state of condition of Metro Manila roads.

Here is the link -