Efforts to ease EDSA traffic problem continue
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2019 16:20:39 +0000
THE Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has a number of plans aimed at easing the traffic jams on Epifanio de los Santos Ave. (EDSA). One is an EDSA bus loading-unloading ban which had a dry run last Monday.
The MMDA called for the strict enforcement of the point-to-point franchise of provincial buses, which means they are to run straight from their provincial stations to their stations in Metro Manila. They are not to stop to load or unload passengers anywhere along the way – most especially along EDSA.
Some bus firms have bus terminals on EDSA, especially near the Cubao area in Quezon City, which explains why that area is the most traffic-congested in all of Metro Manila. The MMDA now plans to close down all the EDSA bus terminals by June; they will have to move elsewhere in the city.
There was a traffic plan that was implemented last December that did not turn out so well. Buses from Cavite and Batangas were made to unload their passengers at a Paranaque Integrated Terminal Exchange, a sort of landport for provincial buses.
The provincial buses were compelled to stop at the terminal, unload their passengers, and return to their provinces. But there were not enough passenger vehicles to carry the unloaded passengers on to their destinations in Metro Manila.
Similar terminals are planned in Valenzuela City and Sta. Rosa, Laguna, for provincial buses coming from Central Luzon and from Southeastern Luzon. Similar complaints have now been made by passengers forced to disembark at Valenzuela City, with no city buses to carry them on to the city.
It is said that the ultimately, the traffic gridlock on EDSA can only be solved when “Build, Build, Build” succeeds in constructing more roads and highways, especially the elevated kind, to accommodate the hundreds of thousands of vehicles added to the traffic every year.
In the meantime, we need plans like the MMDA’s ban on buses stopping at anytime on EDSA to load or unload passengers. The plan to close EDSA bus terminals will also help. But the landports in Paranaque, Valenzuela, and Sta. Rosa need considerably more planning. In their effort to keep provincial buses from Metro Manila, the planners forgot to provide for how the unloaded passengers would move on to various sites in Metro Manila where they work.