Traffic lights activated on Quezon Avenue to replace U-turns

To ease the heavy traffic gridlock along Quezon Avenue in Quezon City, the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has reactivated traffic signals in three areas, replacing closed U-turn slots. The MMDA sees the traffic signals as a better alternative to the current U-turns.

MMDA Traffic Engineering Center Head Noemi Recio said during the agency’s weekly radio program that they have activated traffic lights at three opened intersections along Quezon Avenue.

“We have reactivated signal lights on Banawe, Roosevelt and Timog-West Avenue but these traffic lights will still be placed under evaluation,” Recio said, adding that the MMDA has observed that these signal lights have helped ease the traffic situation with proper enforcement.

Recio noted that motorists plying the busy thoroughfare have been complaining of the heavy traffic along Quezon Avenue but would sometimes blame it on the traffic signals in the area.

“Based on our monitoring, the traffic buildup in the area is not caused by the reactivated traffic lights but by illegally parked vehicles, jeepney and tricycle terminals, and sometimes vehicular accidents,” Recio explained.

Cris Saruca, officer-in-charge of the MMDA Traffic Discipline Office, also said during the MMDA radio program that they would preposition tow trucks and roving traffic personnel to apprehend illegally parked vehicles in the area.

Saruca, in an earlier interview with the Philippine Daily Inquirer, noted that the MMDA has been planning to reactivate traffic lights along Katipunan Avenue to also replace the U-turn slots which they would like to close.

A Quezon City traffic head earlier shared with the Philippine Daily Inquirer his observation that the U-turn slots along Katipunan added to the traffic jam in the area as trucks and other vehicles plying the road would have to take about two lanes to make a turn.

This was after MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino said that the 80 percent increase in the number of trucks plying Katipunan was caused by the recent “no apprehension policy” implemented by the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) for trucks, which has not yet complied with their franchising requirements.

A scientific study has concluded that U-turns can effectively take the place of intersections regulated by traffic lights, if the roads are suitably modified. The roads have to be widened at the U-turn point so that the flow of traffic going straight on will not be hampered. And just as importantly in our city, vehicles such as buses and jeepneys should not be stopping near the U-turn slots.

With report by Maricar B. Brizuela