MMDA mulls 1 more week of HOV lane trial

HOV Lanes-MMDA officers monitor CCTVs along EDSA specifically the HOV (High-occupancy lane) the fifth lane along EDSA Guadalupe during a dry run that will start today, Dec.11, until next week. HOV lanes are set for vehicles with at least two passengers including the driver, as a way to ease traffic, the HOV lane would be the innermost lane on EDSA, just beside the Metro Rail Transit (MRT). INQUIRER/ MARIANNE BERMUDEZ

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) plans to extend for one more week the test run of a traffic scheme designating a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane along Edsa.

MMDA operations supervisor Bong Nebrija said the extension was being considered to better familiarize motorists with the scheme and address difficulties encountered by traffic enforcers, especially when checking the occupancy of cars with heavily tinted windows.

The HOV lane refers to the highway’s innermost lane—the one nearest the MRT line—which the MMDA marked for the exclusive use of vehicles carrying two or more persons.

Of the 15,810 cars recorded to have used the HOV lane during the dry run that started on Dec. 11, only 3,529 were clearly observed to have met the required number of occupants, while the majority—or 8,314 cars—could not be easily checked because of their tinted windows. —Jovic Yee