After 7 weeks of the Metro Manila traffic action plan

IT is now seven weeks since the start of the Malacañang-led effort to solve the traffic problem in Metro Manila that had grown to such proportions that the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) could not be expected to solve it by itself.

With Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras named by President Aquino to lead the action group, the plan called for the Highway Patrol Group (HPG) of the Philippine National Police to take over the supervision of traffic along Epifanio de los Santos Ave. (EDSA) which appears to be at the core of the problem. Stricter traffic enforcement and clearing of obstructions succeeded in easing EDSA traffic but much of the problem may have been merely shifted to secondary roads in the metropolis.

The other day, Secretary Almendras announced another step in the effort to ease Metro traffic. The government, he said, will now start towing illegally parked vehicles, especially on designated “Christmas Lanes.” The MMDA has already listed 17 of these Christmas or “Mabuhay Lanes,” including many around Greenhills in San Juan, Baclaran in Parañaque, and Divisoria and Carriedo in Manila.

The traffic planners also cannot possibly miss the road construction work that continues to block so many Metro streets. The concrete pavements in so many streets have been broken up and ditches have been dug for drainage pipes now positioned on sidewalks. The Almendras planning group could perhaps appeal to the contractors to rush the construction and repair work, so as to restore the streets to the motoring public much earlier than scheduled.

No one expects the problem to be solved immediately, for it was the result of years of neglect and inaction. But now that it has reached its present state of crisis, causing losses to business and commuters estimated at billion a day, earning for Metro Manila the distinction of having the worst traffic in the world in the Waze Global Driver Satisfaction Index, and causing the President, no less, to name his own action group to take over from the MMDA, it does not seem right that the situation seems hopeless as ever, with not much expectation that it will get better any time soon.