Manila Traffic

[Benington]

Yes, loading and unloading is definitely something to target. But vehicle coding operates now so it would be a relaunch, not a new policy.

Regarding the plate issue isn't the new government pledged to improve the LTO? That might take a while though  I did read something about ship loads of new number plates being the subject of a commercial dispute.

In any case new vehicles without a plate have their coding day based on the last digit on their conduction sticker at the back. Not as good for detection as a plate displayed at the front as well, but at least something.  Yes, people might try ways to cover or remove it , but surely that could be countered? There's still a problem with lost plates and people may deliberately remove their plates. If that becomes widespread then the authorities have to counter it. Otherwise it is just a loophole in the scheme -  all schemes have some.

Whatever you do about flow, in my opinion there must also be policies for volume reduction to deal with Manila's traffic crisis. If they don't do something radical I can only conclude they don't really think it is a crisis.

[scott h]

58 minutes ago, Benington said:

In any case new vehicles without a plate have their coding day based on the last digit on their conduction sticker at the back.

I hear all you say Ben. And I agree with it. But I guess I just didn't explain myself well.

Coding only works if it is enforced. Now my bil has not had a plate for a long time, he has never been stopped and asked for registration NEVER. I am going to assume that in England like the states, if you don't have a license plate you will be stopped almost daily.

It is all about enforcement. Speeding, parking, blocking traffic, illegal turns, pedestrians jaywalking, loading unloading. All right in front of "traffic enforcers".

My belief is that if the current laws were just enforced congestion would decrease quite a bit. Once things improve just a little, then start looking at making them even better.

Edited June 30, 2016 by scott h

[Benington]

Scott,  I don't know where your BIL drives his vehicle in The Metro , but I am sure it can't be in either Las Pinas or Makati Any vehicle driving on a main road in Las Pinas and on almost any public road in Makati on the wrong day - let alone without a plate - will be stopped. I If you don't have a plate, especially in Makati, you will have the book thrown at you.

Those two areas are very strict on coding - unlike Paranaque, which you list as your location. They are more relaxed on coding there.The traffic enforcers in Paranaque are generally more lenient  too.

If traffic enforcement was made a MMDA function these laws and rules could be enforced Metro wide.

While I agree with you that the sorts of measures you list can help, where we disagree is whether that will be anywhere near enough to deal with the traffic problem given the size of the projected growth in traffic. (With the exception of speeding. It's just a bit difficult in Manila, so we don't need to worry about it from the congestion angle).

You mention England - well, in London they have certain roads into the capital with a red line painted at the side (Red Routes) and it is prohibited from stopping or parking on them. But here, as you observe, there are plenty of traders using main road space either to provide a service for eg minor motor repairs or for loading/unloading. I even once saw, out of Manila admittedly, a place where a nursery was displaying a large number of plant pots in a proper lay by. Added to that vehicles just park.

You've got to ask yourself why the laws on this aren't much enforced. It could just be poor direction, laziness etc, or it could be sympathy from people who themselves don't earn much and who don't like to reduce the income of many of these small businesses if they enforced the rules.

To have any effect there would probably have to be a mass clearance of all business activities roadside throughout the Metro. I think that goes on already in a few places. The businesses usually can't go back to create parking space. So many would have much reduced incomes and some would close down. When squatters are cleared there are relocation programs. They are generally resisted because the places to which they are relocated are not good for jobs or business. So how would you deal with the fallout from a mass program of road clearance? Even more livelihood programs? 

Besides, many motorists like the idea of stopping by the roadside to buy small items, rather than having to try and find parking space in front of some convenience store or going into a Grocery or Mall car park.

The impact of an expanded coding scheme would be on the middle class. Metro wide road clearing would impact the poor. Manila politicians would have to think about who they want to anger the least. I think the middle class would probably be able to get around another day a week coding....but would the small businesses and vendors get around their loss of customers and ability to deliver and collect?

At best this policy can only be applied on some main through routes. But Manila has a complex road system, with many  busy roads going across town in places where many people earn a living from passing road traffic.

[Jack Peterson]

Just picked up on this, could this be a start;

**Talks are ongoing with a company that supplies 35-seater cable cars for commuters in South America and once approved, the new mode of transportation for the capital’s 12 million people will be operational in 18 months said incoming minister Arthur Tugade **

 

Added story

MANILA, Philippines – Incoming transportation secretary Arthur Tugade is apparently thinking out of the box to resolve the traffic crisis in Metro Manila.

“We are seriously studying the possibility of putting up cable cars in Metro Manila, particularly in the Pasig City area,” he told ABS-CBN News yesterday.

“I also want a cable car linking Makati and Santa Rosa (in Laguna),” he said.

He said there are studies showing that a cable car system could be built in one-and-a-half years.

“One car can carry up to 35 passengers,” he added.

Tugade pointed out that aside from being a transportation mode, a cable car could serve as a vehicle for sightseeing.

 

 
He also vowed to resolve the ownership issue plaguing Metro Rail Transit 3, the rail line along EDSA, in the early part of the administration of president-elect Rodrigo Duterte.

“We have to identify who really owns MRT-3 – who operates it. Ownership and maintenance issues will be resolved in our first 100 days,” he said.

These issues have plagued the EDSA rail line during the entire six-year term of President Aquino.

The government operates the line, which is supposedly owned by MRT Holdings of businessman Robert Sobrepeña, who also controlled the failed College Assurance Plan, a pioneer in the industry selling educational and memorial plans.

However, 80 percent of the Sobrepeña firm’s bonds or debt instruments are held by state-owned Landbank and Development Bank of the Philippines (DBP). In fact, the two banks have majority representation in the company’s board of directors.

But the Sobrepeña group insists that Landbank and DBP do not own or control MRT-3, since ownership is different from indebtedness.

To finally settle the ownership issue, President Aquino and Transportation Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya proposed in 2014 that the government buy out Sobrepeña and other private investors.

Aquino had included P65 billion in the then proposed 2015 national budget for the buyout, but the appropriation was scrapped in the Senate by Sens. Francis Escudero and Sergio Osmeña III.

The two senators said they did not believe that the proposed buyout would solve the ownership and maintenance problems of MRT-3.

The outgoing administration has procured about 80 train coaches for the EDSA line after successfully fighting off a temporary restraining order obtained by the Sobrepeña group from a Makati court.

Many of the coaches will be delivered this year and next year.

Tugade did not say how he would resolve the EDSA rail line’s ownership issue.

He said he would try to bring back Sumitomo as the maintenance provider of the facility.

He said he also plans to build rail systems in the Bicol region and in the Visayas and Mindanao.

As for the airport congestion problem, Tugade said the international airports in Manila and Clark “can co-exist.”

“We have to develop both,” he added.

He pointed out that in the near future, a new and large international airport has to be built.

http://www.philstar.com/headlines/2016/06/29/1597753/cable-cars-eyed-ease-metro-traffic

[Mr. Bobo]

The EDSA is by far the worst road as far as traffic goes that I have ever experienced in my life and I spent 15 years working as an expat abroad in a few different countries. It is a lost cause no matter what the authorities do. It is one of the main reasons I avoid Manila. I used to take the wife and kid to the Mall of Asia about once a month but not anymore. We have to travel south from Nueva Vizcaya and enter EDSA from the NLEX. I have had days where it has taken 3 hours to get to MOA from the NLEX off ramp at EDSA. I have also had days where the traffic is stopped 5 of 6 kilometers from the EDSA off ramp and had to wait in traffic for an hour just to get to the EDSA off ramp. If you have go to the toilet when stuck in that kind of traffic in the Philippines you are sh*t (pun intended) out of luck. If I have to fly out of Manila now I drive three hours north to Cauayan and then catch the CEBU Pacific flight to terminal 3 in Manila. The 400 kilometer flight from Cauayan to Manila is less than an hour. It takes longer to travel the 4 kilometers between Terminal 3 and NAIA in Manila traffic than it does to fly the 400 kilometers from Cayayan to Manila.

[chris49]

I'm calling political BS on the cable cars, when they haven't solved the MRT/LRT problem.

Cable cars carrying 35 passengers in each car does not do much to solve the problem. As for using it for sightseeing, Manila to Sta Rosa, that's the throwaway comment of the year.

Also this guy Tugade has not even taken office yet and he's talking about the need for a new international airport. Good idea but just getting it off the ground during his term in office would be monumental. And where exactly are they going to put it? Developing Clark with rail links is more viable and that is already planned.

[chris49]

19 hours ago, Mr. Bobo said:

The EDSA is by far the worst road as far as traffic goes that I have ever experienced in my life and I spent 15 years working as an expat abroad in a few different countries. It is a lost cause no matter what the authorities do. It is one of the main reasons I avoid Manila. I used to take the wife and kid to the Mall of Asia about once a month but not anymore. We have to travel south from Nueva Vizcaya and enter EDSA from the NLEX. I have had days where it has taken 3 hours to get to MOA from the NLEX off ramp at EDSA. I have also had days where the traffic is stopped 5 of 6 kilometers from the EDSA off ramp and had to wait in traffic for an hour just to get to the EDSA off ramp. If you have go to the toilet when stuck in that kind of traffic in the Philippines you are sh*t (pun intended) out of luck. If I have to fly out of Manila now I drive three hours north to Cauayan and then catch the CEBU Pacific flight to terminal 3 in Manila. The 400 kilometer flight from Cauayan to Manila is less than an hour. It takes longer to travel the 4 kilometers between Terminal 3 and NAIA in Manila traffic than it does to fly the 400 kilometers from Cayayan to Manila.

You should have entered the C-5 road from CP Garcia Avenue in the Dilliman area. You should have exited NLEX at the Mindinao bypass 1 km south of Valenzuela, 5km before NLEX meets EDSA. It's not a trip a would undertake, but  C-5 could get you there in about an hour.

[Mr. Bobo]

7 hours ago, chris49 said:

You should have entered the C-5 road from CP Garcia Avenue in the Dilliman area. You should have exited NLEX at the Mindinao bypass 1 km south of Valenzuela, 5km before NLEX meets EDSA. It's not a trip a would undertake, but  C-5 could get you there in about an hour.

Thanks for the shortcut, but why do you say that it is a trip that you would not undertake?

[not so old china hand]

7 hours ago, chris49 said:

I'm calling political BS on the cable cars, when they haven't solved the MRT/LRT problem.

The Cross-Thames cable car installed for the 2012 London Olympics became known as "Boris's white elephant". AFAICR it only carries 3,000 people a day.

[Benington]

The thing is it's not just Manila. I know from my own personal experience that Cavite and Laguna are now generating their own considerable volumes of traffic, not just commuting into Manila but, surprisingly, going the other way and across. From what I read on this forum and others the same is true in provinces to the North.

More railways are needed in various directions out of Manila, but there is not much chance of that.

Time to look at vehicle registration fees and the low cost of gas?