Revelations on EDSA

The MMDA officials were so busy defending and explaining what they were trying to do on EDSA these past few days that they apparently failed to see the obvious. When the MMDA strictly enforced the “buses inside the yellow lane” policy last Tuesday and Wednesday, most of the comments and the criticism focused on the monstrous traffic it created. Yes it did but by the second day of strict enforcement, revelations and better solutions started to become obvious.

First of all, every time the MMDA corrals the City Buses inside the yellow lane, the rest of EDSA opens up and there is less gridlock allowing private cars to travel faster. This is because the buses don’t weave in and out of the yellow lane and the private vehicles can’t enter the bus lanes. This proves that the buses take up more space and intentionally block other buses and cars from getting ahead of them. When the buses were contained inside the yellow lane, they piled up from north to south, which reveals that there are simply TOO MANY City Buses. In fact many of the buses particularly non-air conditioned buses were only half full if not almost empty.

The reimplementation of the buses inside the yellow lane policy also showed that the numbers of the provincial buses were so few and spread out in the day to make any serious impact. When you think about it, provincial buses want to get out of Metro Manila as fast as they can because they travel several hours and need to meet fixed schedules or ETAs. Every provincial bus that leaves, stays outside Metro Manila for several hours if not over night, so they shouldn’t be blamed for congestion. Instead of the Provincial Bus Ban, the MMDA might want to study the option of reducing City buses on EDSA or imposing a route and time scheduling or number coding system.

Because they were all lined up and could not get out of the yellow lane, buses were stuck and none of them could get out to drive on or move ahead. This tells us that the MMDA is not properly implementing the alternating bus stops for buses. Based on a route or numbering system, buses should only be allowed to stop at a few designated bus stops and not where ever they want. The MMDA could limit loading and unloading to maybe 3 or 4 stops maximum based on bus numbers. This would reduce the pile up or long lines of buses crawling through every bus stop.

When the Yellow lane policy was strictly implemented, many motorists trying to enter EDSA from side streets or get off EDSA were prevented or delayed by buses refusing to give way to smaller vehicles. Bus drivers don’t recognize or respect those lines or markers that motorists are suppose to follow to get off or on EDSA. That behavior is the reason that traffic and gridlock occurs at on ramp and off ramp streets along EDSA. Adding to that problem is the EDSA First policy of traffic enforcers that results in traffic elsewhere. There used to be enforcers and HPG personnel posted at those access and entry roads who make sure that buses don’t block or bully other motorists but are now rarely seen.

Last but not the least, the barriers on top of the yellow lane on EDSA proves that putting up dedicated lanes with physical barriers especially for motorcycles and the HOV lane will make things move faster and make driving on EDSA safer. So what if the Provincial Bus Ban turns out to be a dud or the wrong solution. The MMDA effort at least revealed valuable facts and observation that they can act on. If life gives you lemons – Make Lemonade!

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I’m not sure if I got the name right but I recently caught a glimpse of an interview with a UP Professor by the name of Fe Mendoza who commented that complaints made to the 888 hotline or Malacañang should be qualified or properly evaluated because not all complaints are valid or well founded. This was the same opinion I expressed when President Duterte included the LTO in his hit list of government agencies that needed to improve their performance by implementing electronic solutions.

Yes the LTO still has much to work on but they have also achieved much given the legal hurdles, sins of the past administration and bureaucratic or legislative requirements that could not be circumvented. For instance one of the biggest complaints against the LTO comes from the Motorcycle riding community thousands of whom howled over the legislated change in license plate designs. Many of them hated on the LTO but were totally ignorant of the fact that it was Senator Richard Gordon who wanted large plate numbers on motorcycles as an anti-crime measure. The motorcycle community even persecuted then Senator JV Ejercito for merely being a signatory to the bill of Senator Gordon.

The second largest complains are about the car license plates of 2013 to 2016 April that could not be manufactured and released because the COA blocked the project that was done during the term of PNoy. The current LTO leadership merely inherited the problem, could not force the issue and had to find support in order to get the COA to lift the order of disallowance. Another possible cause of annoyance is the arrangement of the MMDA and LGUs with the LTO where traffic violators caught via cctvs or the Non-Contact apprehension end up not being able to renew their vehicle registration until they settle with the MMDA or the LGU. The LTO ends up being the baddie for not registering a vehicle or renewing a license. So before we castigate government agencies in public we should validate the complaint.

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