Traffic’s still bad

In case some people in power have forgotten, traffic is still pretty bad, seven and a half months into the term of President Duterte. But mercifully, there are days when I can drive to Makati from Ortigas in less than an hour.

The last attempt to fix the traffic problem ended up as an embarrassing flop. MMDA prematurely announced a so-called zipper lane (counter flow) to Makati on EDSA during the morning rush hours. But they failed to prepare properly for its execution. It was a mess.

EDSA from Quezon Avenue to Ortigas is almost always a test of patience. Ortigas Avenue and Shaw Boulevard are also pretty bad during most hours of the day. Let us not talk about C5. It’s bumper to bumper the times I drove from BGC to Greenmeadows as late as 11 in the evening.

Ask DOTr what’s going on and they will likely say they are waiting for their emergency power. But I understand they are itching to fix the bus franchise system to introduce some amount of civility in EDSA with or without emergency power. If they get stopped by TROs, they would have proven their point and the pressure will be on Congress to deliver.

If they gather enough guts by Thursday, DOTr may launch their bus rationalization program. That involves reformulating franchises and routes. Actually, I am told many bus operators have shown interest to participate voluntarily. Some have even gone abroad to observe how bus systems are run. 

On the other hand, no one knows what DPWH Sec. Mark Villar is waiting for. The promised two or more bridges across the Pasig River have remained figments of everyone’s imagination. There had been early promises too for some kind of flyover in Katipunan near the UP Town Center to alleviate traffic flow there. But it looks like it won’t materialize any time soon.

And what’s keeping Sec. Villar from moving on C-6? It will take a lot of truck traffic away from C-5. I am sure technical studies of C-6 are all done. I have been hearing about this project for two decades now. Come on, Mark. Don’t be Duterte’s version of Mar Roxas who delayed projects through indecision. Start moving!

At least we can depend on MMDA’s Tim Orbos to come up with one idea after another and never mind that implementation can be half baked. One of these days we may just be lucky and hit the sweet spot.

I like Tim’s idea of recovering the Roxas Blvd. service road now being used for parking. Tim wants to use the two additional lanes to relieve the usual traffic congestion on Roxas Blvd.

A better idea is for DOTr to use the space to put up a BRT that will run from Baclaran to Intramuros. Because there is no right of way problem or existing bus franchises there, it is possible to quickly show everyone, specially bus operators, how BRT can help move people efficiently.

Maybe we can use a local proponent of the BRT system who will produce everything he needs locally since that will also create jobs. Francis Yuseco is just a phone call away. He has submitted to DOTr, past and present, studies upon studies of how such a system could work.

We simply have to get as many cars out of the road as we can. Tim may be prolific in churning out new ideas, but only out of desperation. It is probably mission impossible. With over 300,000 new cars on the road each year roaming in the same road space, no one can be creative enough to deal with the problem.

Metro Manila is simply congested. The Cambridge English dictionary defines our problem:  definition of, congested meaning: too blocked or crowded and causing difficulties.

In other words, there are just too many cars, too many people in Metro Manila. That’s the root of our problem. Unless we deal with congestion, we are just fooling ourselves with the measures that are a little bit here and little bit there but nowhere near addressing the real problem.

We were happy to note that President Duterte and DOTr  Sec. Art Tugade recognized this problem right away. They talked of decongesting Metro Manila. It will take time, but they said they will start to make it happen. So, here we are still waiting… waiting even for the first hint that they mean business.

Sec. Sonny Dominguez is talking of tax reform. How about using the power of incentives and disincentives to initiate the process of decongesting Metro Manila?

As I have suggested in this column six months or so ago, one obvious place to start is with the BPOs. In our desire to jumpstart the development of the industry, PEZA gave tax incentives to buildings that host BPOs. Soon, there was an upsurge in property development geared for BPOs.

It is time we stopped granting those incentives because we no longer need to give it in Metro Manila. It encourages BPOs to locate in our most congested metropolis. The property sector has also become dangerously dependent on BPO rentals with the resulting threat on our financial sector.

Even a once civilized alternative to the chaos of the Makati business district that the BGC once was has become a traffic hell hole. It may be a planned development, but they surely didn’t plan for all that traffic coming out of the BPO industry.

It makes sense to stop granting PEZA incentives to property developers with BPO tenants in mind. Maybe it is still alright to grant the incentives for those located outside of Mega Manila. But let us start to use the power of incentives and disincentives to alleviate our daily sufferings arising from congestion.

One other problem congestion brings has to do with rapidly escalating property prices. That may be good for property companies, but bad for everyone else. Those “studio” condo units with barely enough room for a double bed have seen their prices rise. Soon even those units will be too expensive for the intended market.

Maybe if we had a decent and dependable public mass transport system, workers can live further away. But we don’t have that luxury. It will take the whole term of President Duterte to just get started repairing the LRT/MRT systems.

The other thing we can do is impose congestion pricing to discourage people from driving their cars and use public transport instead. But without a working mass transit system, it may be unfair to do congestion pricing the way they do it in Singapore and London.

There is no getting away from the need to implement several unpopular measures to show that the Duterte administration means business in dealing with congestion. Vested interests will put pressure on government to allow them to continue to enjoy incentives that will keep BPOs in Mega Manila. This pressure should be resisted. 

What gives us hope is that President Duterte has said he is beholden to no one, specially not to the vested interests who form the backbone of our property sector. I understand PEZA has a tall stack of applications for tax incentives filed by builders of BPO buildings. Hopefully, the new PEZA head will have the courage to change policy and not be pressured by the usual suspects with no sense of the common good.

We need to see some determination on the part of government to deal with a congestion problem that has made our lives miserable. And we need to see that now.

Boo Chanco’s e-mail address is [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @boochanco.