Heavy-tinted car windows confuse MMDA enforcers

Traffic enforcers assist motorists passing along Edsa, near North Avenue, Quezon City. INQUIRER PHOTO / NINO JESUS ORBETA

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Monday had a hard time checking the compliance of motorists with its “high-occupancy vehicle” (HOV) lane due to the heavily-tinted windows of over 60 percent of cars using the lane.

As of 4:30 p.m., the MMDA recorded 6,118 motorists on the HOV lane. Of this number, 1,121 cars had two or more passengers while 1,275 were driver-only cars.

The MMDA, however, could not determine if the remaining vehicles were compliant because of their heavily-tinted windows.

“Our CCTVs (closed-circuit television cameras) can only see so much. Since we released this policy, Metrobase has been very busy trying to focus where to get the clearest shot to apprehend HOV violators,” MMDA operations supervisor Bong Nebrija said.

Last week, the Metro Manila Council tasked the MMDA to test the implementation of the HOV lane to reduce the number of cars plying Edsa.

Under the traffic scheme, the innermost lane which is the closest to the Metro Rail Transit-3 is for the exclusive use of cars with two or more passengers, including the driver.

Driver-only cars are now limited to the third and fourth lanes, as the two outermost lanes are for public utility vehicles.

Since they are testing out a new policy, Nebrija said it was normal for them to experience birth pangs.

He added that in the coming days, they would make adjustments for the proper implementation of the HOV. –Jovic Yee