Hell Week on EDSA

Last week may as well have been declared “Hell Week on EDSA”. In trying to solve a problem or implement a law that they themselves failed to enforce for sometime, the MMDA ended up creating more problems than real solutions. As every EDSA commuter knows by now, the MMDA suddenly decided to strictly enforce the “Buses inside yellow lane” rule. When you insist on controlling 3 to 10 thousand buses (depending on who’s counting) over a sixteen-kilometer stretch, you better have an army of enforcers to do the job.

Unfortunately, the MMDA had no such army so it was the army of bus drivers who ended up enforcing their will to create obstructions, disregard enforcers and generally be a pain for the entire Metro Manila.

We know the problem and it’s the traffic. Reminding us of the problem or telling us the obvious by giving us hourly updates does not really solve the problem. What we need the MMDA and the Aquino government to do is to have the political will to solve the problem and not just traffic updates or publicity.

To be fair to the MMDA, perhaps it is time to call in the Land Transportation Franchise Regulatory Board (LTFRB) to take account for all the buses they’ve allowed to pass through EDSA. It’s time to make the LTFRB spend some of the money they collect annually, on a general audit or survey of these buses and to study their load factors during peak hours and off peak hours.

Time and again, print and broadcast media has reported that many buses operating on EDSA particularly non-aircon buses are usually half empty. This indicates that there are too many buses on EDSA, that there is probably an excess of buses for certain routes, and that some buses such as provincial buses especially those going south should be rerouted.

Once we determine the load factors of buses, the MMDA will now have a scientific basis for enforcing a Bus reduction system similar to what people now call as “color coding”. This of course will require the LTFRB and the MMDA to strictly monitor and screen out colorum buses, which will also reduce congestion on EDSA.

Many readers may not realize that several bus terminals for buses going to the Laguna-Batangas-Quezon-Bicol area operate from the Kamuning-Quezon City area. As a result all these buses add up to the volume on EDSA and take away passengers from buses legitimately operating on EDSA. In addition, passengers living in the Mandaluyong-Pasig- Makati area are forced to first go to Quezon City to ride a bus and go back the same way to go south!

These terminals can be relocated just beyond Magallanes, or better yet somewhere along C-5 and the undeveloped part of Fort Bonifacio where these buses can connect to the Skyway and SLEX.

The same actually goes for major bus lines that have been allowed to set up their terminals in the heart of Quezon City, which now causes part of the traffic jams on EDSA. The government must now show political will and consider the public good as well as losses in terms of time and money because of traffic and inefficiency.

When Manila hosted the ADB conference a couple of months ago, the MMDA required logistics companies, deliveries vans and similar commercial vehicles to change their operating hours. At the moment the MMDA strictly enforces the truck ban. However, many companies have worked around the law by reducing the number of wheels on their delivery vans from six to four wheels. Because desperate times call for desperate measures, it may be time to simply ban all commercial vehicles during peak commuter hours.

Right now, all the focus has been on buses but no one has done a proper study of how the government is being cheated and losing money because of trucks being registered as “Jeepneys”. In the Makati business district particularly along Buendia, most of the commuter Jeepneys are oversized or super-sized. But if government were to strictly enforce the law, these Jumbo-fied Jeepneys that have as many as 20 to 30 passengers would fall under commercial trucks, which occupies a lot of space and carries a lot of weight.

Another solution or problem that has not been fully addressed is the frequency and speed of the LRT and MRT trains as well as the design of terminals in order to allow easy entry and exit of commuters. Every report I’ve seen on TV about the MRT shows long lines suggesting there too many passengers, which turns off commuters. As someone who uses both the MRT and the LRT, I know that half of the problem is because there are not enough security guards doing the manual security check on passengers and baggage.

Once you survive the slow walk to Calvary, the next line is to get your card because there are no automated ticket dispensers like in Thailand, Hong Kong etc. why does everything have to be manual in the MRT and LRT terminals?

These are just some of the things that the Aquino administration might want to consider to ease Hell on EDSA, because at this stage we the people are fast losing our patience and patience is not the solution for traffic in EDSA.

* * *

Email: [email protected]