MMDA: New scheme just for rush hours

MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino

As motorists and netizens fumed over his latest ideas for easing traffic in the capital, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chair Francis Tolentino did some more explaining regarding his proposal to expand the number coding scheme.

In an interview on Radyo Inquirer on Thursday, Tolentino said that, if approved, the four-digit coding scheme currently being studied by the agency would be enforced only on Edsa and only during rush hours.

Tolentino made the clarification as the proposal drew widespread criticism on social networking sites when first conveyed to the media on Wednesday. In effect, the new measure would ban private and public vehicles on major roads for two days a week, instead of just one day under the current system.

The MMDA chief then told reporters that the agency was looking at the possibility of expanding the traffic scheme formally known as the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, by adopting a system patterned after the traffic rules in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Tolentino on Thursday said the new measure would be called Road Space Rationing Program.

“Our appeal is for motorists to make sacrifices not for the whole day but only during rush hours. That is, 7 to 10 in the morning and 5 in the afternoon to 8 in the evening,” Tolentino said on the Radyo Inquirer program “Banner Story.”

Under the proposed scheme subject to the approval of Metro Manila mayors, vehicles with plate numbers ending in 1, 2, 3 and 4 will not be allowed on Edsa on Monday; 5, 6, 7, 8 on Tuesday; 9, 0, 1, 2 on Wednesday; 3, 4, 5, 6 on Thursday; and 7, 8, 9, 0 on Friday.

But “3 and 4 (on Mondays) will be banned on Edsa only from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m.,” he further explained.

These vehicles can still pass through Edsa if they need to cross the highway going to C5 or Roxas Boulevard, he said.

Under the current scheme, private and public vehicles with numbers ending in 1 or 2 are barred from the streets 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Mondays; 3 and 4 on Tuesdays, and so on. It’s not implemented during weekends and public holidays and during window hours from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., except in Makati City.

“This Road Space Rationing Program is designed to improve air quality, solve traffic congestion during those time frames, and improve the quality of life,” Tolentino said.

In a related development, a major labor organization said it was in favor of having a “four-day” workweek in one or two cities in Metro Manila to help alleviate the daily traffic congestion.

The Associated Labor Unions-Trade Union Congress of the Philippines (ALU-TUCP), which considers itself the largest confederation of labor unions in the country, said “we support the good intention of the proposal.”

“However, the scheme, by operation, can be advantageous and disadvantageous to both workers and companies,” said ALU-TUCP executive vice president Gerard Seno.

“(It) calls for workers to work for 10 hours a day for four days. The 10-hour work per day will already be arduous for … labor-intensive (companies) particularly those in the manufacturing, production, transport and construction sectors,” he said.

“A compressed workweek also means reduced income as it requires waiver of overtime pay for millions of regular and nonregular workers. It may also swell the ranks of the unemployed and underemployed,” he added. With a report from Tina G. Santos