Musings on the worsening Metro Manila traffic

THERE are nearly 300,000 private vehicles plying Edsa every day.

Edsa nowadays is a sweltering pit of despair from which few motorists escape. Those who do are often found voicing their grievances on social media, in fits of apoplectic rage.

Travel time on this artery has climbed up into the multihour range over the past few years, leading to a lot of finger-pointing—both index and middle—as various groups try to pinpoint the causes of this chaotic conundrum.

But beyond viral pictures of buses clogging three lanes to pick up passengers, there are a multitude of factors at play in our current traffic mess.

First, there are just too many commuters.

The MRT, when it is running, absorbs some half-million passengers per day. Passenger buses serve another million or so, split between provincial and metro buses.

Granted, some of those provincial passengers switch to the MRT or jeepney when they enter the metro. But this still leaves an estimated half-a-million passengers to be served by those 6,000 metro buses.

Statisticians will tell you that fewer buses will suffice for that many passengers. This is little comfort for those who have to wait for those buses to cycle around for their third or fourth rush-hour trip.

Secondly, there are too many cars. Much as we hate to admit this, it’s true.

There are nearly 300,000 private vehicles plying Edsa every day. Each one of these carries just one or two passengers. Five cars take up the same road space as one bus. Seven if they lock bumpers.

As such, they’re merely one-tenth as efficient at utilizing road space as buses are.

Much as we like to bemoan the huge space given over to the bus lanes, giving two-fifths of Edsa over to a system that carries half the total commuters makes sense, doesn’t it?

And lastly, the sad truth is that we’ve outgrown Edsa itself. Edsa has a nominal carrying capacity of 160,000 private vehicles and 1,600 buses.

To stay within that capacity while serving our current commuter volume, we would have to squeeze five or more people into each car. And each bus would need to serve between 300 to 600 people during rush hour, depending on whether the MRT has, once again, broken down or not.

This is obviously not going to happen.

THE SAD truth is that we’ve outgrown Edsa itself.

Relief seems in sight, with new MRT cars being delivered for deployment over the following year. And the FTI South Bus Terminal is finally past the planning stages. There is also the North-South connector road meant to funnel express commuters over the metro. And the advent of Uber and GrabTaxi is allowing more and more commuters to simply forego the cost and hassle of driving themselves to work.

But will this be enough?

As ordinary motorists are not willing to pay extra for Uber, there is still more we can do. Many people will not find walking or cycling palatable, but it is a legitimate option when rush-hour traffic moves at an average of 10-15 kilometers per hour.

Smartphone navigation apps like Waze help you save time by directing you around traffic. And by redistributing the volume of cars across more side streets, these apps help ease congestion as well.

This makes travel times shorter for everyone, including non-users.

Car pooling is another time-honored method to make road utilization more effective. Indeed even the Metro Manila Development Authority has put out its own rideshare app in the hopes that people will start using the road more responsibly.

But if all of this requires too much effort, do consider taking the bus. It is cheaper than paying for gas and parking, and buses get their own express lanes.

And sleeping on someone else’s shoulder on those interminable trips down Edsa is a great way to make new friends.

Contrawise, you could always find another job, preferably some place sunnier and less stressful. You might have to take a pay cut for working outside Manila, but you can’t put a price on your health.

Jericho Zingapan

Makati City