Car brand ‘coding’ in Edsa? MMDA says it may not work
MANILA, Philippines — The proposal to have cars banned from using Edsa based on their brands may not work to solve the issue of traffic congestion, an official from the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said on Wednesday.
“No, not really,” MMDA Edsa Traffic Head Bong Nebrija said in an interview with ABS CBN News Channel when asked if he thinks the said proposal is feasible.
Nebrija was reacting to a proposal by former Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation (PAGCOR) consultant Arison Gorospe to have a coding scheme in Edsa based on car brands.
Under Gorospe’s proposal, the following car brands are banned from using Edsa on a particular day:
Monday – Toyota
Tuesday – Mitsubishi, Hyundai, Isuzu
Wednesday – Nissan, Ford, Foton
Thursday – Honda, Chevrolet, Mazda, Subaru
Friday – Suzuki, Kia, Volkswagen, Mercedez Benz
Saturday – JAC, Tata, Audi, BAIC
Sunday – Mini and Lotus, Volvo, Ssangyong, and others
According to Nebrija, if the proposal will be implemented, the MMDA would also have to train its personnel on car brand spotting.
“There will be so many cars. How can we even tell which is the brand?” he said.
“Our enforcers are hardly car owners themselves, motorcycles probably, but not cars so they could hardly profile which is which and the apprehension would be hard,” he added.
As for the proposal on making Edsa a one-way highway, Nebrija said that it is “far off.”
“That’s really something far off because there will be a lot of engineering intervention that needs to be done if we would be implementing that,” he said.
With this, Nebrija said increasing the alloted lanes in Edsa for buses may work in solving traffic congestion.
Nebrija however expressed concern that sooner or later, buses may take-over Edsa if the such a scheme will be implemented.
“Right now they have two, that’s 40 percent of Edsa. Now were trying to give them three, that’s 60 percent. It could work but what I’ve been telling we’ve already given them two, they’ve already taken three,” he said.
“Give them three, they would take four, and sooner or later, we would find out that Edsa has been taken over by city buses,” Nebrija said. /muf
