EDITORIAL— Worst traffic congestion

Here’s another dubious distinction for the Philippines: Metro Manila had the worst traffic congestion among all metropolitan areas worldwide in 2023. This was according to Dutch multinational transport data provider TomTom Traffic.

TomTom found that it took an average of 25 minutes and 30 seconds to travel 10 kilometers in Metro Manila in 2023, making the city dislodge Bogota, Colombia, which had the worst ranking in the previous year. The travel time in Metro Manila was worse than its average of 24 minutes and 40 seconds in 2022, when it ranked second worldwide.

Within city centers, TomTom’s 2023 Traffic Index also ranked Manila as the third most congested city in Asia and the ninth worldwide. On average, it took 27 minutes and 20 seconds to travel 10 kilometers within Manila’s city center – slower by 20 seconds in 2022, TomTom posted on its website on Jan. 10.

The worst day and time for travel in Metro Manila, according to the 2023 index, was 5 to 6 p.m. on Fridays, when it took an average of 35 minutes and 30 seconds to negotiate 10 kilometers at a speed of just 19 km per hour. Other Southeast Asian metro areas clocked less than 20 minutes: Jakarta, Indonesia; Bangkok, Thailand; Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and city-state Singapore.

TomTom based the rankings on data from 600 million devices in cars and smartphones in 387 metro areas worldwide, which collectively traveled 551 billion km. Based on its data, Filipinos wasted 117 hours, or nearly five days, stuck in traffic in 2023. Behind Metro Manila were Lima, Peru; Bengaluru, India; Sapporo, Japan, and Bogota.

People may think the situation in Metro Manila is worse than presented in the traffic index. Studies have shown that traffic congestion has cost the economy billions in lost productivity annually. And people have been waiting for many years now for an improvement in the situation.

While the obvious reason is the inadequacy of mass transport, which has led to an ever-increasing vehicle volume with no corresponding expansion in the road network, other factors aggravate the problem. These include uncoordinated diggings, construction and repair along roads, no cohesion in traffic policies within Metro Manila, and traffic mismanagement in general. An ill-conceived no-contact traffic apprehension scheme focused mainly on unconscionable revenue-raising that fattened one private company at the expense of already harried motorists instead of better traffic management.

As the TomTom index has shown, other countries are dealing with their traffic problems, which pushed Metro Manila to the worst No. 1 spot. This should push the country to do better in traffic management.