2-day car ban gets flak

MANILA, Philippines - It’s just a proposal.

Deluged with criticism of its planned two-day ban on private cars along EDSA, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) clarified yesterday that the modification of the current unified vehicular volume reduction program (UVVRP) or number coding was just a suggestion.

The MMDA issued the
statement as lawmakers opposed the new plan to reduce traffic congestion in the metropolis by banning vehicles using EDSA twice a week.

MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino made the clarification when he was asked if he would be pushing the planned modification to Metro Manila mayors that compose the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the policy-making arm of the MMDA.

Senators frowned yesterday on the proposed expanded number coding scheme because rich motorists might just buy new cars to get around the ban on using EDSA.

Sen. Nancy Binay said that the lack of discipline of motorists is one of the causes of the worsening traffic problem in the metropolis.

Binay said she could not imagine that the MMDA’s proposed two-day a week travel ban will solve the traffic problem along EDSA.

“The tendency will be those who can afford will just be buying another vehicle so that they can use another during the coding day,” Binay said.

Binay noted that the increase in the vehicle volume contributed to the traffic problems in Metro Manila.

She encouraged government agencies such as the MMDA, Land Transportation Office, the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, and local governments to have a concerted effort to deal with the traffic problem.

Acting Senate President Jinggoy Estrada said there is a need to study the MMDA’s proposal before it is approved.

Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo said the new number coding plan along EDSA would only further paralyze productivity due to insufficient public transport in the metropolis.

Extending to two days the current one-day road ban every week for motor vehicles along EDSA would immobilize small entrepreneurs who mostly maintain only one vehicle, he said.

The lawmaker said the ban would make the small entrepreneurs “unproductive and less responsive to its task of nation building.”

“The planned two-day road ban would terribly hurt the general motorists,” Castelo said in a statement, adding that its success would depend largely on a viable mass transport system as an alternative.

Tolentino proposed to expand to two days the ban on vehicles to reduce by 40 percent the volume of vehicles along EDSA on any given working day.

The MMDA plans to adopt the two-day road ban, which is currently enforced in other major cities like Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Santiago, Chile.

Tolentino, however, explained that the expanded number coding scheme is just a suggestion for now.

Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, who heads the MMC’s Special Traffic Committee, told reporters that he is not in favor of including commuter vehicles in the proposed modified UVVRP because it would be a burden on commuters.

Bautista assured the public that any modification on the number coding scheme would have to be tested for at least two weeks before it is either accepted or rejected by the MMC.

“I’m pushing that we test it for two weeks. Until we test it we will not experience it. The chairman just wants the idea brought in the open to hear the reaction of the public. Then we will test it. Let us develop the concept,” Bautista added.

Under the modified UVVRP, Tolentino said vehicles with license plates ending in 1, 2, 3 and 4 would be banned from using EDSA on Mondays with no permitted window hours.

Vehicles covered by the UVVRP for that day are, however, allowed to use other major Metro roads, including C-5, on the usual window hours of 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Vehicles with license plates ending in 5, 6, 7, 8 are to be restricted on Tuesday; ending 9, 0, 1, 2 on Wednesday; 3, 4, 5, 6 on Thursday and 7, 8, 9, 0 on Friday.

Under the present UVVRP, vehicles with license plates ending in 1 and 2 are barred from using EDSA and other major metro roads every Monday from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Vehicles with license plates ending in 3 and 4 are barred from EDSA and other major streets every Tuesday; 5 and 6 on Wednesday; 7 and 8 on Thursday; 9 and 0 on Friday.

The UVVRP is not implemented on weekends and public holidays.

Under the present UVVRP, a “window” period is allowed from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. except in Makati City where the scheme is effective from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Other cities such as Marikina and Taguig do not implement the UVVRP.

Exempted from the present UVVRP are marked government vehicles, vehicles with diplomatic license plates, emergency vehicles and ambulances, police and military vehicles, properly accredited media vehicles and motorcycles.

Castelo said that any plan to reduce vehicles along EDSA is always dependent on the available mass transport system.

He expressed doubts if the public transport system in Metro Manila has the capability and capacity to provide mobility to additional commuters, including the motorists who would be affected by the proposed two-day road ban.

He urged the MMDA to come out with other alternative measures like sustained traffic reengineering in vital thoroughfares like EDSA.

“There will always be other ways to ease traffic,” Castelo said. With Mike Frialde, Paolo Romero