Traffic observations early on the new administration

It’s been roughly six weeks since President Rodrigo Roa Duterte assumed office. A few days after holding office, he promised to improve the traffic condition in the Philippines, particularly in Metro Manila, which Jica, the Japanese agency tasked to help facilitate improvements throughout Asia, says is costing our country P2.4 billion daily in terms of productivity losses, and fresh produce spoilage, plus fuel cost.

Six weeks in, and has traffic improved? The answer isn’t so clear-cut. On the main thoroughfares, particularly Edsa, traffic has improved somewhat. It’s a welcome and noticeable improvement, but still very far from a truly useful, ideal improvement.

In certain cities and municipalities, traffic has also improved; but in others, it has worsened.

Why is this?

I’ve been trying to find a pattern or reason as to why certain areas are improving, and not.  Here are my observations:

1. The thoroughfares being handled directly by the MMDA, with the cooperation and assistance of the PNP, are the ones that are showing slow but steady improvements in traffic management and speed.
2. Certain intersections, avenues and thoroughfares that terminate or dissect between two municipalities and/or cities tend to have very bad traffic.

A very good example is the stretch of Shaw Boulevard that intersects the Mandaluyong and Pasig boundaries, specifically at Shaw Avenue corner San Miguel Avenue.

3. Areas that have major infra projects suffer the worst traffic imaginable.
4. There are three major infrastructure projects that are a huge bane in the lives of Filipino motorists. The Skyway Stage III connection road linking SLEx to NLEx (under project proponent Citra Central Expressway Corp. (CCEC), a joint-venture firm led by San Miguel Group); the upcoming NLEx-SLEx Connector Road (under Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. led by megamogul Manny V. Pangilinan); and the Naia Expressway under San Miguel subsidiary Private Infrastructure Development Corp., which links SLEx to Coastal Road and the Pagcor Entertainment City.

These three major projects, once completed, will greatly ease traffic, make travel more convenient, and help save time and travel costs.

The Skyway Stage III should be finished by late 2017, while the Naia Expressway will be finished as early as the end of this year.

The SLEx-NLEx Connector Road Project is still up for a Swiss Challenge this month, and will take roughly three years to finish. So until these three projects are finished, “carmageddon” will still be the norm in the affected areas.

5. Large cities like Quezon City have so many thoroughfares and small inner roads that straddle traffic-infested main roads.

A perfect example is Araneta Avenue leading to C3. There are so many possible alternate routes and shortcuts that run parallel along Araneta Avenue that can allow motorists to circumvent Araneta Avenue itself , but the Quezon City government isn’t giving this any attention.

Thus, these roads remain unknown to many motorists. Those who do know have to contend with illegal structures, illegally parked vehicles, and other road hazards which both the local and national governments can remove to ease and improve traffic flow.

6. There seems to be a general lack of communication between various government agencies that handle our roads: PNP, MMDA, DPWH and local government traffic officers.

It seems that politics, issues on jurisdictional rights, and differences in what road has more importance tend to get in the way of smooth traffic.

On my first observation, I feel that the MMDA and the PNP, because they have a single mandate on how to handle Edsa, are far more effective in policing and monitoring traffic along the city’s biggest thoroughfare.

I see almost all traffic officers (whether PNP or MMDA) holding a two-way radio to improve coordination, thus ensuring efficient traffic management.

On major thoroughfares that intersect or cut across city boundaries, the two local government units (LGUs) concerned should set up a regular coordination meeting and come to an agreement on how to handle traffic.

The Mandaluyong side of Shaw Boulevard is relatively fast-moving. But the Pasig side, which is much shorter, usually takes far more time to traverse.

The only reason I can offer is that the Mandaluyong traffic enforcers are far more effective, organized and well-coordinated as opposed to their Pasig counterparts.

Dear Madame Mayor Eusebio, I hope you can look into this. Pasig City and Ortigas Central Business District are, in my opinion, far worse than Makati and Ayala Center in terms of traffic management.

Regarding major infra projects, I’d like to think that the chaotic traffic situation is simply for the short term. The long-term benefits of these major infrastructure projects are truly worth the short-term suffering we are currently experiencing.

While there is no immediate and obvious miracle solution to the traffic caused by these projects, I feel government—both national and local—could do well to coordinate with each other in improving traffic in these areas.

Worth mentioning are the private traffic enforcers employed by CCEC. They manage traffic very well in their areas of responsibility because they are well organized and coordinated. This is a model all other traffic enforcers of LGUs should follow.

My conclusion? Lack of communication and coordination are the major reasons why traffic isn’t improving. If we can arm our traffic enforcers with two-way radios or any efficient means of communication, with a true, centralized traffic czar that knows how to give priorities on what roads need to keep moving and what roads can be held up just a wee bit, to make way for traffic on the busier thoroughfares, and to also prevent blocking the intersections (a very common occurrence), traffic will be faster.

Next, if the government can educate motorists about all possible alternate routes around a heavily gridlocked traffic hotspot, while removing all obstructions, we can greatly reduce traffic.

Former Assistant Secretary Alberto Suansing told me that you can look at traffic in a most simple manner: traffic is caused by choke points. Eliminate choke points, and traffic speeds up.

Some choke points are immovable: The major infra projects are the perfect example. But some can be moved (illegally parked cars, illegal structures, bad road surfaces, etc.) with a bit of political will and a steady, solid but reassuring hand.

Taking a cue from a fellow car-guy, Mario Rossi, who heads an engineering firm: an effective way to reduce traffic is to improve public transportation.

While the private owners of the Edsa MRT 3 duke it out with the national government, Mario feels that an underground subway system is perhaps the best solution versus the old and outdated MRT 3.

When I asked Mario about the possible flooding concerns, he cited that Hong Kong and Singapore are also island nations prone to flooding, yet have very effective subway systems.

He goes on to state that there are various solutions and models already in existence around the world on how to deal with the issue of flooding in an underground subway/walkway, and this is not a problem unique to the Philippines.

Plus, subways reduce pedestrians at ground level, which means less jaywalking and potential accidents.

The problem is that the government cannot finance this on its own, and will need a private sector partner, or foreign financial assistance. Given how President Duterte has moved briskly, there is hope for this happening someday soon within his term.

Talking about reducing pedestrians at the ground level, pedestrian overpasses are the next obvious step. Reducing pedestrian crossways on ground level will reduce traffic stoppage as well as accidents.

LGUs in bustling cities need to build more overhead, well-lighted and guarded pedestrian overpasses to protect pedestrians.

Dear government leaders, I hope we can quickly find solutions to this problem because it really sucks being stuck in traffic!