Now it’s carpooling.
It’s the latest scheme that the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) is pushing to help decongest traffic on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) in Metro Manila.
Under the scheme, private vehicles with three or more passengers will use three of the five lanes of the country’s busiest highway during peak hours.
Private vehicles with fewer than three passengers will be barred from plying Edsa. Instead, they will be made to use alternate routes that the DPWH will open for them.
Public Works Secretary Rogelio Singson on Tuesday disclosed the carpooling scheme in the Senate finance committee hearing on the proposed DPWH budget for 2016.
Moves to decongest Edsa and improve Metro Manila traffic came after the public complained about the monstrous traffic jams brought about by infrastructure works, inefficient MRT trains and the huge volume of vehicles.
On Monday, the Philippine National Police Highway Patrol Group (HPG) started its new role as the main traffic enforcer at six choke points on Edsa, while authorities cleared roads of obstructions and illegal vendors. Traffic enforcement in these areas was previously handled by the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA).
At the Senate hearing and to reporters later, Singson said that carpooling, while being “seriously considered,” would still be taken up on Friday in a meeting of the interagency group tasked with looking into measures to improve traffic flow in the metropolis.
Many proposals, according to Singson, have been put forward to ease traffic congestion in Metro Manila but his department is pushing for carpooling.
There is also a recommendation for government offices to operate from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. and for the private sector, from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Singson said.
In carpooling, private vehicles with three or more passengers could use Edsa during the peak hours between 7 a.m. and 10 a.m. and between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m.
“But to do this, you have to open alternate routes so that private vehicles that have fewer than three passengers could go there,” Singson said.
Private vehicles with three or more passengers will be able to use three lanes, including the third lane reserved for motorcycle riders.
The two other lanes are reserved for buses. Authorities are strictly enforcing the use of these two “yellow lanes” for buses, he said.
Singson said the problem with Edsa was there were so many vehicles and the government was approaching the problem by figuring out how to maximize the highway’s use.
The Metro Railway Transit (MRT) was supposed to help ease traffic flow on Edsa but there was a need for more coaches, he said. Authorities have also started to use the bus rapid transport but it may take a while to implement this properly.
“So, what is available now are the current buses and we have to maximize the use of the two bus lanes. If they can traverse Edsa in one hour, they can get six trips a day,” Singson said.
That is why authorities are focusing on enforcing road discipline on the two bus lanes to ensure that buses will be able to travel 25 kilometers per hour from north to south of Edsa and vice versa, according to Singson.
He said “findings” on how to fix the bus stops on Edsa and the study of whether road barriers and U-turns were effective would be discussed by the interagency group on Friday.—Christine O. Avendaño