‘State of emergency’ to solve traffic mess?

The monstrous daily traffic snarls have apparently pushed many motorists to desperation, and some are now demanding that President Aquino declare a state of national emergency in Metro Manila to stop the anarchy on the streets that the problem has spawned. 

A petition on the website change.org is close to generating 5,000 signatures to pressure Mr. Aquino to declare an emergency situation in the nation’s capital due to the gridlock at peak hours.

“The inhuman traffic and transportation situation in Metro Manila has reached disastrous levels. No taxpaying citizen should have to sit for five hours by a road hopelessly waiting for a means of transportation or camp in traffic with no food or means to relieve themselves,” the petition said.

It has become very clear the President and government agencies concerned must intervene with “immediate and significant emergency action” to alleviate the catastrophic transportation situation “either through emergency powers or a strong exercise of Executive and police authority,” the petition added. “Whatever the mechanism, we expect more meaningful and swifter action from President Aquino.”

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) estimates that some 145,000 vehicles pass Edsa every hour, up from 120,000 a decade ago.

Traffic police units are currently deployed in six major choke points along the avenue—Balintawak, Cubao, Ortigas Avenue, Shaw Boulevard, Guadalupe and Taft Avenue.

A week ago, the Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group made its debut as Metro Manila’s new traffic enforcers on Edsa and earned praises from commuters.

But on the second day, a heavy downpour inundated large areas of the metropolis, largely because its drainage system is practically clogged by garbage, particularly plastic materials, that people throw away carelessly.

The flash floods turned the traffic situation into a nightmare, stranding many and forcing them to spend the night soaking wet on the submerged streets.

“What happened on Tuesday evening should teach us many lessons,” said Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. “It was a compounded problem. One big problem that came out was our drainage system, the capacity of which, according to (DPWH) Secretary (Rogelio) Singson, needs to be increased.” He acknowledged, however, it would take time to do this.

Coloma reminded people to dispose of their garbage properly. As it is, he said, there is a need to continuously clean the metropolis’s drainage system because of carelessly thrown garbage.

Francisco del Rosario Jr., president of the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP), said the traffic jams limit the country’s economic output, since they affect the productivity of workers.

“Too much cost and loss are involved because of this traffic situation,” he said.

Members of the Cabinet had proposed old solutions, such as carpooling and the odd-even number scheme, but many doubt they would work.

Coloma said the carpooling proposal still needed fine-tuning.

“Consultation and careful study regarding that are still ongoing because it would have big impact. It requires the support and cooperation of the people,” Coloma said. ”We don’t want to end up in a situation where instead of getting cooperation, indignation would be the response from our people.”

Under the carpooling proposal, private cars with fewer than three passengers would not be allowed to pass Edsa.

”Our problem is the limited road capacity… there are too many cars… so the solution is to have more people move faster at the same time…that’s why carpooling came out,” Coloma said.

The solution is more roads, according to a study of the Japan International Cooperation Agency (Jica)—136 kilometers of new at-grade roads, plus 462 kilometers of intercity expressways and 78 kilometers of urban expressways.

The study said economic losses from the traffic problem could rise to P6 billion a day by 2030 if the government failed to put order on the streets.

Authorities have also identified Manila ports as one of the major causes of traffic congestion, but their total phaseout was deemed not tenable because the total capacity of the alternate ports of Batangas and Subic was insufficient to handle all the container traffic.