Holiday traffic fix eyed

With two months to go before the holidays, preparations are being laid down to address the expected increase in traffic volume that could worsen the congestion in Metro Manila’s already clogged roads, according to Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras.

Almendras, who has been tasked to address the metropolis’ traffic woes, said more roads would be cleared.

“We’re going to start clearing some roads not along Edsa to make sure we can handle the additional [volume] even for December,” Almendras told reporters on Friday at the Senate which took up the budget of the Office of the President.

According to him, he has also met with mayors of the cities located on Edsa and they vowed to cooperate in addressing the problem and work on feeder roads leading to the busy thoroughfare.

Almendras added that he had asked the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board to review certain passenger jeepney routes to decongest choke points. The franchise of jeepneys were also being reviewed as there were too many of them, he said.

New bus routes may also be available in two to three weeks for express buses, he told reporters, adding that as part of efforts to ensure orderly traffic flow, lane separators would be installed to separate bus lanes from those for private vehicles.

The Department of Public Works and Highways has already procured the lane separators which will be installed by the first week of November.

Almendras said the government was approaching the traffic problem by providing alternatives so that people would be encouraged to use public transportation, thus freeing up more road space.

The traffic congestion in Metro Manila has been a constant source of complaints.

With the gridlock worsening, authorities were even prompted to deploy members of the police’s Highway Patrol Group on Edsa.

Compounding the problem was the frequent breakdown of the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 which ferries over 500,000 passengers a day.