Carpooling works, says Japanese mayor planning project with Manila

With her Japanese city partnering with Manila for a major transportation project, visiting Yokohama Mayor Fumiko Hayashi said Filipinos weary of daily traffic jams should consider something that her own people have found effective: Carpooling.

Commuters in small groups regularly renting a private vehicle and paying fares depending on their destination could go a long way in reducing road congestion, Hayashi said through an interpreter during a reception hosted by the city government of Manila on Thursday.

In Yokohama, there is also a “no car day” that obliges commuters to use public transportation, she added. Hayashi also spoke of a measure in Moscow that limited the number of cars that can enter a certain area of the city.

The Japanese official was in the country to mark the 50th year of friendly relations between Manila and Yokohama. She is also as a keynote speaker in the APEC Women and the Economy Forum hosted today by the Department of Trade and Industry.

Traffic became her conversation topic with Mayor Joseph Estrada as she spoke of a “public transportation network” being planned in Manila with her city’s help and with 2030 as the target year of completion.

Details of the project were not immediately disclosed, but Estrada said his wish was to see a system similar to that of Yokohama where “trains and buses complement each other.”

“As it is now in Manila, the buses, trains, jeepneys and tricycles compete with and completely disregard each other,” said the mayor, who was part of a Philippine delegation that visited Yokohama in March to see its subway and other transport systems. Also on the trip were other Metro Manila mayors and Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chair Francis Tolentino.

“Yokohama, being a port city, is like Manila where traffic is a daily challenge because many people need to move cargo from one place to another,” Estrada said, adding that Manila could use some expert advice on traffic management from the Japanese city.

For Rogelio Legaspi, the assistant city engineer for operations, “we can no longer do road widening and expansion in the Philippines. We’ve done it already. What we need are second-level roads, vertical expansions, just like on South Luzon Expressway and some airports in the Philippines.”

Citing Japan and Taiwan as countries with efficient second and third-level roads and bridges, Legaspi said City Hall had proposed a partnership with the Japan International Cooperation Agency to create a second-level road that will run from Manila to North Avenue, Quezon City.