EDSA not just a traffic problem
Credit to Author: Tempo Desk| Date: Fri, 05 Jul 2019 18:07:43 +0000
THE problem of Epifanio delos Santos Ave. (EDSA) has turned out to be a multi-faceted one. All the while, we were concerned solely with the time-consuming traffic along Metro Manila’s principal thoroughfare. It takes two to three hour to travel the length of EDSA from Quezon City to Makati, so that EDSA has become the symbol of the region’s traffic problem.
At the beginning of President Duterte’s administration, the Department of Transportation began to work on the EDSA issue and asked Congress for emergency powers which, the government said, are needed to solve it. Nothing came of this proposal and the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) turned to other proposed solutions, including the removal of all provincial bus terminals from EDSA, which has, however, been challenged in court.
Last week, it was reported that the EDSA traffic is not just a transportation – but also a health – problem. With all those buses, cars, and utility vehicles inching along the highway most of the 24 hours of the day, EDSA has become a highly polluted place, all the vehicles continuously emitting carbon dioxide, sulfur oxides, nitrogen oxides, and other particles and gasses.
There is a Clean Air Act, Republic Act 8749, under which the Department of Environment and Natural Resources monitors air quality around the country through its Environmental Management Bureau’s Air Quality Management Section (AQMS). But most of the stations monitoring emissions from factories are, it is said, not functioning. As for vehicles, AQMS data reportedly says 67 percent of 35,849 vehicles tested in 2018 failed their emission tests.
The air pollution along EDSA is principally a problem for those constantly exposed to it during most of the day, particularly traffic officers. All that pollution is having ill effects on the health of these government workers, as well as other people working and living in the high-pollution areas. The Department of Health may have to step in on this matter.
But the basic EDSA problem is still the traffic. Last Monday, Secretary Mark Villar of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH), speaking in the first of a series of pre-SONA forums ahead of the President’s State of the Nation Address (SONA) on July 22, said EDSA traffic will return to “acceptable” levels by the end of the President’s term in 2022. That is three years from now.
It doesn’t quite jibe with the President’s own optimistic projection that by December, a trip from Cubao to Makati along EDSA should take just five minutes. Very likely, the President’s hopeful projection is part of his usual exuberance and exaggeration, although presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said the President may be planning something.
Secretary Villar’s projection of three years is probably more realistic. We just have to adjust to the fact that our vehicle population has simply grown way beyond the capacity of our road system. The DPWH is moving solidly with its projects to ease EDSA traffic. We hope the other departments of the government will also be taking resolute action on the related problems of air pollution and health.