7 a.m. - 7 p.m. Christmas number coding back in Metro Manila

MANILA, Philippines — The number coding scheme imposed on major roads in Metro Manila before the COVID-19 pandemic will be reinstated anytime soon, according to the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA).

The schedule of the policy, also called the unified vehicular volume reduction program or UVVRP, will be from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Acting MMDA Chairman Romando Artes noted that they have yet to announce when the 12-hour number coding scheme will be enforced as they will observe if traffic congestion will happen along major roads in Manila starting Nov. 6, when trips going to and around Manila will become more common during the Christmas season.

The 12-hour number coding scheme prohibits vehicles carrying plate numbers that end in specified numbers from using identified major roads in Manila: 1 and 2 every Monday; 3 and 4 every Tuesday; 5 and 6 every Wednesday; 7 and 8 every Thursday, and 9 and 0 every Friday.

The policy will apply on circumferential roads – Recto Avenue or C-1, Quirino Avenue or C-2, Araneta Avenue or C-3, EDSA or C-4 and C. P. Garcia Avenue or C-5.

It will also be applicable in radial roads like Roxas Boulevard or R-1, Taft Avenue or R-2, SLEX or R-3, Shaw Boulevard or R-4, Ortigas Avenue or R-5, Magsaysay Boulevard and Aurora Boulevard or R-6, Quezon Avenue and Commonwealth Avenue or R-7, A. Bonifacio Avenue or R-8, Rizal Avenue or R-9 and Road 10 or Mel Lopez Boulevard.

It also covers the Alabang-Zapote Road in Las Piñas and Muntinlupa City, Samson Road and A. Mabini Street in Caloocan City, Marcos Highway and MacArthur Highway.

Exempted from the number coding scheme are public utility vehicles and transport network vehicle service (TNVS), motorcycles, garbage trucks, fuel trucks, registered and marked government vehicles, fire trucks, ambulances, marked media vehicles, those transporting essential and perishable goods and electric and hybrid vehicles.

Since the middle of August 2022, the MMDA has been enforcing the “expanded” number coding scheme that is currently effective from 7 to 10 a.m. and from 5 to 8 p.m. pursuant to MMDA Regulation 22-14.

However, the agency asserted that the Metro Manila Council (MMC) decided to remove the “window period” for the expanded number coding after “studies made on traffic volume show that traffic congestion was not limited only to designated peak periods as traffic volume on major thoroughfares during peak and off-peak hours was close to being similar.”

Based on MMDA’s latest study, over 4,000 vehicles were traversing EDSA and around 2,000 others were using C-5 “at any given time,” according to Artes.

He added that with the 12-hour number coding, car volume would be reduced by 20 percent, equivalent to a decrease of around 800 cars along EDSA and 400 others along C-5.

He noted the MMC has prepared the resolution almost a month in advance to prevent a so-called “carmageddon,” a term used to describe deplorable traffic congestion in Manila, from happening.

The 12-hour number coding scheme was suspended in March 2020, when the previous Duterte administration placed the country under total lockdown at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Number coding was restored in June 2020, but it exempted authorized persons like health care workers, TNVS and media practitioners.

It was revised to become effective during the afternoon rush hour from 5 to 8 p.m. starting the end of November 2021.

It was again adjusted in August 2022 with enforcement from 7 to 10 a.m. and from 5 to 8 p.m.