Duterte should give MMDA’s Orbos a rest

Last Friday, motorists were fuming as a new traffic scheme being implemented by the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) along Edsa and Annapolis Street in Green­hills, San Juan City, caused virtual paralysis in the country’s main road artery.

The entire southbound lane of Edsa became a virtual giant parking lot. Hundreds of thousands of commuters and motorists were inconve­nienced.

Many commuters chose to walk instead of wait in traf­fic, which has come to a stand­still on Edsa and Kamuning Road, Quezon City.

In an interview, MMDA Chairman and General Man­ager Thomas “Tim” Orbos, admitted that MMDA’s experiment last Friday was a dismal failure.

The burning ques­tion is: “Will there ever be a solution to serious traffic?” Is Orbos the solution, or a part of the problem? Orbos previously held the position of MMDA assistant general manager for planning during the time of President Noynoy Aquino.

Not a few of our kaba­bayans have commented that the solutions being presented by Orbos are not well thought out. Once he and his staff come up with a scheme, they implement it immediately without serious consideration of the consequences.

A case in point is the new traffic experiment on Edsa last Friday. The result? A colossal gridlock in the already con­gested thoroughfare.

We don’t suppose they conducted proper consulta­tions with the affected parties.

We can’t also understand why Orbos, brother of the brilliant former Pangasinan Governor and Congressman Oca Orbos, would experiment at this time when the traffic situation in large parts of Met­ro Manila is expected to wors­en as Christmas Day nears.

“Malapit ng ma-Orbos ang pasensya ng tao, GM,” a popular broadcaster quipped.

In fairness to GM Orbos, we know that he is trying his best to solve the gargantuan task. Unfortunately, he really does not possess the profes­sional competence, capability, training and expertise needed to be an effective administra­tor.

The MMDA said that travel time on Edsa has dou­bled in the past five years. Commuters who depend en­tirely on public transportation point out that their travel time in going to their jobs and re­turning to their homes has doubled.

According to available data, Edsa has the capacity for only 2,000 buses in or­der for traffic to flow smooth­ly. However, around 12,000 buses have been allowed to travel and were given franchises by the graft-rid­den Land Transportation and Franchising Regulatory Board (LTFRB). That means Edsa is accommodating six times its capacity for buses.

LTFRB should be more judicious in granting franchis­es to taxicabs, mega taxis and vans. Operations against col­orum public vehicles should also be strengthened. Even private vehicles should be monitored.

No wonder the immense gridlock! The simple truth of the matter is, there are simply too many vehicles passing this major artery.

The reason people drive their own vehicles is that we have no efficient mass trans­port system. We can’t help but take note of the glaring disparity during our visits to the United States and other Asian countries where peo­ple regularly take trains to and from the city.

Their train systems are efficient, comfortable and on time, light years away from our Light Railway Transit (LRT) and Metro Rail Transit (MRT) that suffer from daily break­downs. Passengers are herded like cattle, sweating profusely in the summer heat because of the poor air-conditioning system.

Even worse is the Philip­pine National Railway (PNR) that traverses Tutuban in Manila all the way to Calam­ba City, Laguna province. How many times have we seen horrible acci­dents involving commuters?

Going back to Orbos, his agency together with the LTFRB should radically re­duce the number of buses passing through Edsa. First to go should be the so-called rolling coffins. There are still quite a lot of them plying the Edsa route, albeit with very few passengers, if at all. All they do is clog the already-congested Edsa. Get rid of them.

MMDA should also fo­cus on clearing Metro Manila roads of illegally parked vehi­cles.

Likewise, the LRT and the MRT should be inter­connected. LRT already has a station in Roosevelt. Why not extend this all the way to the MRT North Edsa station to complete the loop? If the government cannot even con­nect these two stations, which are only one or two kilometers apart, we have a big problem.

There are a plethora of solutions worth trying. We wonder why they are not be­ing pursued.

We are losing billions of pesos in terms of man-hours, fuel and stress due to the traffic we encounter ev­ery day. Not to mention the harmful effect on the quality of the air we breathe due to the smoke and fumes emanat­ing from vehicles.

We need a more creative person to come up with the traffic solution.

Sadly, it looks like that person is not GM Thom­as Orbos.