Wanted: Traffic task force for holidays

Since the onset of the holiday season, every night is “Carmageddon” or “Carpocalypse” in Mega Manila with its population of 24 million (13 million in Metro Manila and 11 million in the provinces of Bulacan, Cavite, Rizal and Laguna). As a result, people get home only after spending 3-5 hours in heavy traffic.

A study of the Japan International Cooperation Agency this year says the economy loses P3.5 billion a day due to the traffic problem. But the situation is expected to worsen when the population in Mega Manila reaches 38 million in 2025.

Add to this the growing number of vehicles in Metro Manila, based on the latest statistics from the Land Transportation Office (LTO).

In 2017, there were already 2.7 million registered cars in the metropolis with 367,728 passing through Edsa every day.

From January to August this year, Metro Manilans bought 369,770 cars and 214,865 motorcycles—all brand new.

This brings to over 3.2 million the number of cars, vans and trucks, on top of nearly 2 million motorcycles, currently sharing the road network in the metropolis.

If we add the vehicles from Southern Luzon (396,000) and Central Luzon (387,000), this would mean that there are nearly 6 million vehicles in Mega Manila alone.

Of course, long-term solutions like new roads and highways are ongoing like the Skyway 3 via Araneta Avenue and the North-South connector road that will link the North and South Luzon Expressways.

But on traffic management, there is a compelling reason to reorganize the Inter-Agency Council for Traffic (I-ACT) created by the Department of Transportation.

Government should redirect its strategies on dealing with the traffic problem. The new approach should be similar to that used by the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council when dealing with typhoons. All government agencies, from the national to the barangay level, should move in a single direction. Under the current setup, city mayors and barangay officials are unmindful of I-ACT’s initiatives, especially on local roads.

Most traffic enforcers disappear at nighttime. MMDA constables are on duty only until 7 p.m.

Actually, there are so many government people in charge of traffic — barangay traffic aides, city hall-civil security personnel, police traffic enforcers like the Highway Patrol Group and MMDA — but they need to coordinate with each other.

The worsening Metro Manila traffic would be best handled by the MMDA as lead agency. It should have the total support of the 17 Metro Manila mayors who are directly in charge of local roads.

This way, all ordinances pertaining to local traffic will be enacted by the city mayors, including 24/7 traffic management. If all barangay captains are made responsible for traffic management in their areas, there will be less problems.

A great time to do this is right now. I hope the government wakes up and creates a new task force to manage traffic during the holiday season every year. It should involve all officials, from the national to barangay level.

For comments and suggestions, please e-mail [email protected].