Public urged to take mass transpo to reduce heavy traffic

(INQUIRER FILE PHOTO)

MANILA, Philippines —  Department of Transportation (DOTr) Command and Control Operations Center chief Charlie Del Rosario on Tuesday encouraged the public to undergo a “paradigm shift” and use mass transportation instead of private vehicles to alleviate  heavy vehicular traffic.

“We encourage po ‘yung paggamit ng mass transportation dito na rin po sa Kamaynilaan dahil nga po alam naman po natin na napakarami po ng ating motor vehicle sa lansangan, private vehicles po ‘yan,” del Rosario said in a Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon briefing.

(We encourage the use of mass transportation here in Metro Manila because we know that there are too many motor vehicles on the roads, and those are private vehicles.)

The traffic index of the TomTom International BV, a location technology company, said that Metro Manila topped 387 cities worldwide which were ranked in terms of metro area traffic.

Del Rosario also highlighted the government’s major public transportation projects—the Metro Manila subway and MRT-4 extension—which he believes will help reduce the usage of private vehicles.

He, however, acknowledged that decongesting major thoroughfares would not be easy.

“Ongoing pa rin po at tuloy-tuloy ‘yung ating subway [project], so we are looking at the possibility [that it will help solve the traffic]—kasi hindi naman po natin magagawa ito ng isang upuan lamang, it will take some time—so ‘yung mga proyektong ‘yan ay tuloy-tuloy po na pinamumunuan ng Kagawaran ng Transportasyon,” Del Rosario said.

(The construction of our subway [project] is still ongoing; we are exploring the possibility [that it will help solve the traffic]—because we cannot accomplish this in one go, it will take some time—so those projects are continuously being led by the Department of Transportation.)

“We just have to have that paradigm shift: ‘yung pagbabago ng kaisipan na imbis po na gumamit ng private vehicle natin, gumamit po tayo ng mass transportation,” he added.

(We just have to have that paradigm shift: a change in mindset that instead of using our private vehicles, let’s use mass transportation.)