Traffic in the northern part of Metro Manila has been severely clogged since September 3. The main cause seems to be poor traffic management combined with the one-lane policy for trucks heading to the Manila port area. The affected area in Quezon City stretches from the EDSA-Roosevelt intersection to the entrance of the North Luzon Expressway, and from as far as the Meycauayan exit of NLEX to the Banawe area. Motorists have reported that drives of 3-5 km that previously took 10 minutes are now taking as much as 2-3 hours. Traffic entering Metro Manila via NLEX has been at a standstill. Alternate routes using secondary roads have also become clogged and are no longer viable. Some passengers and commuters have chosen to get down from their vehicles and walk along the highway instead.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority quickly washed its hands of the one-lane policy in Manila, writing in a Facebook post:
REMINDER: MMDA is not implementing one (1) truck lane policy in NLEX & A. Bonifacio. One (1) truck lane policy is implemented only in C5.
This prompted one Facebook user to reply:
reminder: you are responsible for easing-up the traffic all over the metro. so you are to be blamed for any traffic within the metro that directly affects the flow of traffic in NLEX. don’t wash hands. do your job! sayang ang buwis ng taumbayan na binabayad sa inyo. lagi lang naman kayo nakatambay sa mga kanto.
In a radio interview, Bert Suansing, Director of the Confederation of Truckers Association of the Philippines, said that one the part of the truckers, the one-lane policy is needed to prevent truck drivers from jostling with one another as they approach the port area. However, he said that travel to the port area takes several hours now due to the policy.
Motorists are experiencing a nine-kilometer traffic at the southbound lane of the North Luzon Expressway (NLEX).
Dave Bautista of the NLEX Traffic Control Room said that bumper-to-bumper traffic starts at Valenzuela going to Balintawak in Quezon City and the roads leading to Manila.
Bautista said the heavy traffic, which started at 5:00 a.m., forced some commuters to walk to Balintawak in Quezon City just to get to their schools and offices. He said the heavy traffic was triggered by the implementation of the “one truck lane” policy in Manila.
According to him, what used to be a 15-minute drive from Valenzuela to Balintawak would now take more than an hour because of the heavy traffic.
He said the NLex traffic management could not give a time as to when the traffic would normalize.
The economic and social cost of this latest assault on motorists and commuters is enormous.
With a report from Nestor Corrales, Myra Cruz, INQUIRER.net
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