‘Options’

 Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Francis Tolentino is again in the hot seat for his controversial proposal to modify the present unified vehicular volume reduction program (UVVRP). Tolentino incurred the ire anew of motorists for suggesting to add more days to prevent vehicle owners from plying their cars on Epifanio delos Santos Avenue (EDSA) on certain hours of the day.

As revealed by Tolentino, the UVVRP, or better known as number coding traffic scheme, will be expanded to ban motor vehicles from using EDSA twice a week. Tolentino told reporters the other day he is toying with the idea to expand the UVVRP on vehicles passing through EDSA from its present coverage of two license plate endings per day to four.

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. On the other hand, vehicles with license plates ending in 2 and 3 are barred from EDSA and other major streets every Tuesday; 4 and 5 on Wednesday; 6 and 7 on Thursday; 8 and 9 on Friday. The UVVRP is not, however, implemented on weekends and during public holidays.

A “window” period is allowed though from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. under the existing UVVRP, 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. The present UVVRP though exempts marked government vehicles, vehicles with diplomatic license plates, emergency vehicles and ambulances, police and military vehicles, properly accredited media vehicles and motorcycles.

In the proposed modified UVVRP, Tolentino explained vehicles with license plates ending in 1, 2, 3 and 4 will 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.

In seeking to modify the present number coding scheme on EDSA, Tolentino pointed to the traffic flow on this historic highway could perhaps be improved by as much as 40 percent. It could either mean a reduction of downtime, or conversely, an increase in the traffic speed by this much.

Tolentino said the present UVVRP scheme only managed to decongest metro streets by 20 percent.

Malacañang earlier announced the government is eyeing to decongest Metro Manila and implement other measures to ease traffic, with EDSA as starting point. Citing a study conducted by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), the Palace noted with concern traffic gridlocks have been costing the country an estimated P2.4 billion daily in economic losses. The huge amount is based on potential income lost due to the vehicular traffic that slows down mobility of goods and people, productivity in terms of man-hours wasted and additional expenses.

Interviewed over DzRH yesterday, Tolentino could not hide his irritation that the P2.4 billion estimated economic losses due to traffic being quoted by JICA actually came from the MMDA study. In their study, he pointed out, it showed there were only 1.2 million registered vehicles in Metro Manila in 2010 when he first assumed office at the MMDA, which incidentally is also located in EDSA.

As of 2012, he noted, the number of motor vehicles grew to some 2.5 million. And in the first quarter of this year, he cited the report to him by automotive manufacturers that their car sales increased by as much as 40 to 45 percent. As monitored by the MMDA, Tolentino disclosed, as many as 326,504 vehicles pass through EDSA everyday.

His proposal, he stressed, covers only the 25-kilometer stretch of EDSA compared to the more than 5,037 km of roads all over Metro Manila that are not included. Tolentino admitted the revised traffic scheme is inspired by the success of the modified UVVRP in decongesting vehicle traffic in the streets of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil which the MMDA eyes to copy.

The special interest on worsening traffic condition in Metro Manila came to fore when no less than President Aquino himself got stuck in a traffic gridlock last May 31. From that time on, Tolentino started cooking this idea in his mind.

On his way to Taguig that day for an event he was gracing, President Aquino rang up Tolentino and jokingly suggested that the MMDA chief direct traffic himself. However, Tolentino at the time was in Singapore for a two-day conference on Urban Governance Program.

Before reading his prepared speech, the President, with his undisguised irritation, apologized to his waiting audience for being late. “It’s Friday and it’s traffic. I did not expect it’s traffic everywhere,” P-Noy laughingly told them. Traveling without the “wang-wang,” the President related his trip from Malacañang via Roxas Boulevard to get to Taguig was otherwise uneventful, except for the presidential convoy being caught in the middle of non-moving traffic.

Traffic in Metro Manila is usually bad on Fridays, especially on a payday like May 31 that day. This is not to mention that traffic gets worse with flash floods now that it’s rainy season again.

Despite the noble intentions of this proposed revised traffic scheme, Tolentino naturally has to reap the whirlwind rejection by already harassed motorists to such bright idea. But at least, Tolentino gets to show to the President that the MMDA is trying to come up with novel ways to untangle the gridlock on EDSA while attending to the myriad problems and ills in Metro Manila, from floods to illegal squatters and getting vendors out of the sidewalks and off the road.

Tolentino clarified yesterday this is just one of the many “options” that the MMDA is considering at present to ease traffic on EDSA, especially with unruly buses weaving in and out the highway. This “option” will still be reviewed and subject to final approval by the MMDA Council, he pointed out. Fine.

That “option” is obviously no longer open to traffic. The MMDA chairman must look for more acceptable options.