Road clearing—a top priority in solving traffic woes

“The roads are for vehicles as sidewalks should be for pedestrians!”

Amen to that! And it was former MMDA Chairman and now Congressman Bayani Fernando who initiated an almost personal crusade to see this through in the entire metropolis. Although some people saw it as an overstretched venture by implementing this even in residential subdivisions by dismantling landscaped sidewalks, in fairness the basic principle is not flawed. We now see some streets in the metro cleared of every imaginable traffic obstruction from illegally parked cars (some inoperable and rusted), food carts, vulcanizing shops, even ukay-ukay displays, etc., thanks to the ongoing relentless combined efforts of the MMDA, PNP, local government officials and Barangay captains and now these streets are being effectively used by motorists as alternative routes.

In some of these combined obstruction-clearing operations, it was discovered that various concrete structures encroach the sidewalk and even the road. These include a newly built gated house that occupies the whole sidewalk and even a Barangay Hall within the sidewalk. A friendly reminder to guilty parties, we were told that there is such a

Presidential Decree (PD 178) also known as the Revised Philippine Highway Act that prohibits the use of road right-of-way for temporary and permanent structures such as buildings, houses, shanties, stores, shops stalls, shed canopies and billboards under penalty of fine, imprisonment or both.

Clearing the road and sidewalks of obstructions to help mitigate our daily traffic woes is as much effective as actually directing and managing traffic in intersections and should be treated with the same level of importance if not, in some instances, of a higher priority—to merit more personnel assigned to the sometimes dangerous task. TRAVELLING THE TOLL WAYS IN A BREEZE

Thanks to the utilization of modern digital technologies we can now look forward to the possibility of a totally seamless travel through our tollways. No more multi stops and the seemingly endless getting of tollway cards and paying tolls—all adding to travel time and not to mention the inconvenience and unnecessary efforts. Metro Pacific Tollways Corp. (MPTC), the largest tollway concessionaire in the country recently launched its digital tollways program with its Chairman, Manuel V. Pangilinan remarking, “The use of digital payments is helping usher a new era of tollways operations in the country where consumers can enjoy faster, more secure and more convenient electronic transactions.”

It was announced during the launch that aside from cash, motorists traversing NLEX could now pay their tollway fees by using their Easy Trip RFID, beep cards and Mastercard contactless debit, prepaid, and credit cards, including their Smart Mastercard powered by PayMaya. MasterCard acceptance for CAVITEX and SCTEX will commence soon. Motorists will also be able to pay at PTC expressways with their Visa contactless debit, prepaid and credit cards soon.

“Enabling electronic transactions in the tollways is a key contributor in growing electronic money usage as thousands of motorists use our expressways every day. With this initiative, we are offering Filipinos more options that can suit their lifestyle and personal preferences,” added Rodrigo E. Franco, MPTC President and CEO.

Seamless, convenient and hassle-free travel in the expressways—a dream come true. Way to go, MPTC.