Wide mouths and right angles

I took Math 11 so many times I now qualify as a “Math major.”

You don’t have to remember everything you learned in math to recognize a problem whether it’s math related or geometric in nature. While Secretary Art Tugade continues to huff and puff about the need for emergency powers to address our collective traffic woes (which I support), many people have given so much unsolicited advise that the DOTr should try out until they get what they want or else they will lose public support and momentum.

I have long campaigned for cutting “right angle” street corners or commonly called “kanto” and making them curves so vehicles can merge to the right or into oncoming traffic via the “zipper system approach.” My wife Karen also pointed out that buses, and long delivery vans will have an easier time turning without having to occupy two lanes just to turn right. In addition, once we reduce the number of “kantos” we will put a stop to the bad habit of jeepney riders who insist on being dropped off by telling the driver: “Mama’ sa kanto lang po”(Sir pls drop me off at the corner). This behavior of both passengers and drivers is a major cause of traffic obstruction that has extended to jeepney drivers converting corners into their illegal terminals. This simple solution won’t cost a fortune and can be instantaneous in effect.

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Another cheap and easy solution to increase the flow of vehicles on EDSA and C-5 is to “cordon,” barricade or reduce lanes and make them as straight as possible. Reduction may sound insane but those familiar with EDSA and C-5 know that there are many places along these major highways where six lanes often shrink into four or three lanes. There are a number of areas where the fast lane abruptly ends and requires drivers to merge right to avoid MRT pillars or U-turn slot pillars such as in the Pasay part, the area approaching Ortigas to La Salle where an MRT pillar got in the way.

By “aligning and straightening lanes” through barriers and lane transition reduction, we will reduce the funnel or bottleneck effect that keeps happening in the Magallanes, EDSA/Buendia, EDSA/Ortigas (Greenhills) as well as at the C-5/Kalayaan intersection. A continuously flowing pipeline will deliver more volume than huge funnels.

If you observe, the buses along EDSA push through with very little difficulty except when one idiot decides he does not want to stay in line. The reason for the smoother flow of buses is because they have a fixed lane or what we call the yellow lane. On the other hand, private vehicles and delivery trucks have to go through a maze simply because the number of lanes for them are laid out like an accordion or an imaginary python that expands and contracts at various points. As expected everybody tries to cut in or get ahead of each other and end up clogging lanes.

Secretary Tugade and the HPG might want to try slowly aligning the lanes to achieve a more or less straight line. Instead of drivers trying to out jockey or out position each other. Force everybody to stay on fixed lanes and we will all get out faster.

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“Desperate times require desperate measures” and I feel the desperation of many daily commuters who have to drive through the funnel that the flyover on EDSA to NAIA created after its construction. The same goes for the elevated U-turn slots on C-5 that also ate up approximately a lane and a half of C-5 creating two funnels in one place.

I agree with the need but I believe that the solution solved one problem only to create a bigger problem in terms of more traffic on the major route. While I won’t knock down or demolish these structures I would nag the authorities to figure out a way of making the mouths one lane wide at ground level and retain the two-lane width at the top in order to get back the additional lane that the majority of commuters need. If this is too radical, then let’s coral the vehicles into position and put a stop to lazy ass drivers who always try to cut in line and are never arrested or punished. The HPG should put a stop to this very bad and disrespectful behavior.

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Mayor Erap Estrada and the Philippine Ports Authority have agreed to work together to build more stations for the Pasig River ferry in order to make Manila more accessible. While they are at it, they might want to call a meeting with the Mayors of Taguig, Pasig, Makati as well and work on making more stations on the entire stretch of the Pasig River as well as calling in more investors to introduce long trips and short trips along the length of the Pasig as well as across the Pasig at numerous points.

The Pasig River ferry was always useful for us when going from Guadalupe/ Mandaluyong down to the Quiapo station. But the same system would really get a boost if there were smaller ferries crossing from Mandaluyong to Rockwell and Vice Versa or Makati City hall-J.P Rizal to the Mandaluyong side. A station at Sta. Monica in Barrio Kapitolyo would be very popular since many people are now patronizing a rickety wooden dinghy/banca that crosses over to the Makati side. Many bike/bicycle enthusiasts would probably patronize safer ferries that allow them to bring bikes on board especially students.

Perhaps the Mayors and the MMDA could sit down to work out the possibility of making bicycle lanes up and down the Pasig River incorporating secured parking stalls, including the pro-bike ferries that take them across. Now would be a good time to talk to the bicycle clubs and enthusiasts as well as conducting a survey on the idea.

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