Gov’t claims faster flow of Edsa traffic

PHOTO by GRIG MONTEGRANDE/INQUIRER

An improvement of 25 to 30 percent in the flow of vehicles, especially public utility buses, was observed in most areas of Epifanio de los Santos Avenue (Edsa) during the morning rush hour on Monday with the deployment of Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group (PNP-HPG) as the lead traffic enforcer of the key highway in Metro Manila.

This was the assessment of Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras in a meeting with key officials of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, and Land Transportation Office on Monday afternoon.

Almendras said the usual 20-kilometer-per-hour movement of vehicles had improved by 5-8 kph as a result of the new traffic scheme on Edsa.

“Buses used their yellow lanes, especially on Shaw where they were moving fast along with private vehicles,” said Almendras, who has been tasked by President Aquino with overseeing government action on the traffic problems along Edsa.

Traffic on the north and southbound lanes of Shaw Boulevard and even along the Shaw underpass were light to moderate during the morning rush hours from 7 a.m. to 9 a.m.

Almendras walked from P. Tuazon in Quezon City to Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City to oversee the HPG deployment and traffic situation along Edsa.

After learning about the challenges in managing traffic, Almendras said he was aiming for better integration in the coming days.

“We want to make sure that all activities are integrated and coordinated between government agencies assigned to improve the traffic situation along Edsa,” he said.

Beyond capacity

Almendras noted that Edsa was operating beyond its capacity.

“Edsa was designed to hold 140,000 vehicles per day but now vehicle volume has reached more than 260,000 per day,” he said.

Malacañang is satisfied with the first day of the HPG’s role as the lead traffic enforcer on Edsa.

“Based on reports that we received, overall traffic is good so far on the first day of the PNP-Highway Patrol Group’s operations on Edsa,” Presidential Communications Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. said in a press conference on Monday at lunchtime.

Coloma cited as an example the smooth flow of traffic at the Balintawak market, one of six choke points identified along Edsa, brought about by the clearing of vehicles illegally parked in front of the market.

One of the kinks in Monday’s traffic was the congestion at Edsa-Santolan Avenue that Coloma blamed on the “narrowing space along Edsa.”

He said a lot more things were needed to be done and fine-tuned since it was just the HPG’s first day on Edsa.

MMDA Chair Francis Tolentino was at the Shaw Boulevard intersection around 7 a.m. and saw that the lack of public utility buses was more of a problem than the traffic in the area.

Commuters at the bus stop in front of Starmall were seen squeezing themselves into buses, which were already full of passengers, just to reach Makati City and other destinations in southern Metro Manila.—Maricar B. Brizuela and Gil C. Cabacungan