Citing the adverse economic impact brought about by the worsening traffic situation in Metro Manila, the Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) is urging the government to appoint a traffic czar and implement some measures, including the establishment of a new government center in New Clark City.
In a statement signed by its President Rene Almendras and committee chair for transportation and infrastructure Eduardo H. Yap, MAP strongly urged President Marcos to appoint a traffic czar.
To be effective, MAP said the traffic czar must be “vested with full powers and authority to mobilize, direct and deploy existing relevant resources of the government, both national and local, during the exigency of this crisis.”
MAP said that having the worst traffic is a big drag on the local economy and the welfare of the people.
In 2014, the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) revealed that the traffic congestion in Metro Manila costs the Philippine economy at least P2.4 billion per day. This amount reflects the value of time lost due to delay, fuel costs, impact on health, and environmental destruction, among others.
With the traffic piling up due to the rising urbanization in the capital, JICA predicts the associated costs will likely increase to P6 billion if no effective intervention will be implemented by 2030.
Additionally, MAP has identified eight measures to ensure a holistic traffic solution for the National Capital Region (NCR).
Foremost, MAP proposed that Metro Manila must be organized into four traffic management zones with each zone headed by a qualified zone traffic manager, who will be accountable to the traffic czar.
Second, MAP is pushing for the revival of the Mabuhay Lanes and optimize their use as alternate routes to relieve congestion along major routes, such as EDSA, C4, C5 and radial roads and create new ones where none exists.
The third proposal is to implement the National Transport Plan as formulated by the National Economic and Development Authority in 2017. MAP said the plan should prioritize mass public transport over private vehicles.
This measure calls to institutionalize travel demand management by charging private vehicles in high-volume traffic routes during peak travel hours and rationalize the jeepney and bus franchising system to institute a one-route, one-franchise system.
Fourth is the privatization of the EDSA Busway through the Public Private Partnership model to bring it to world-class standards. MAP would like the government to process the unsolicited proposal and proceed with the Swiss challenge soonest.
As a proponent of the Busway System, MAP proposed the system’s expansion to other major thoroughfares, such as Commonwealth Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Sucat Avenue, Alabang-Zapote Road and others.
The fifth measure is to privatize the operation and maintenance of MRT3 and LRT2 systems to expand capacity, reduce train gaps, and maximize commuter throughput.
For its sixth measure, MAP has urged the government to build a government center and transfer all national offices to the New Clark City and impose a moratorium on building new government offices in Metro Manila.
Under this measure, the government should be able to establish a timetable for the phased construction of the new government center.
This is aimed at developing satellite communities outside Metro Manila to be linked with the NCR north and south commuter rail system.
In addition, MAP would like the Pasig River and Laguna Lake passenger ferry system to be fully developed with regular schedule and transfer stations for multi-modal connectivity to jeepneys and buses.
This means construction and implementation of Ro-Ro ferry ship system for passenger and cargo across Manila Bay from Cavite to Bataan, to provide an alternate route to decongest C-5, Katipunan Road and North Expressway (NLEX) and thereby bypass Metro Manila.
The last measure is the construction of other infrastructure like bridges over Pasig River to divert and relieve over-concentration of vehicles in the few existing bridges; provide more on and off-ramps for existing Skyways, while clearing ground-level traffic to enable vehicles to exit or access the ramps; provide more alternate exits and entry points to the NLEX and SLEX tollways to decongest existing tollgates; and construction of more effective and sustainable flood control measures, among others.
As the proponent of the Busway solution, MAP also believes that the traffic crisis in the NCR is not insurmountable. There is just a need to realize that the road space is a finite public resource which must be judiciously and efficiently used to move people, instead of private vehicles.
There must also be a realization that high occupancy in conveyances and uninterrupted vehicle flow are the keys to higher commuter throughput.
“This was clearly proven to be correct in the new Busway with only 550 buses fielded, while the defunct yellow bus lanes proved that over 3,000 public buses only worsened traffic congestion,” MAP said.