Traffic pa more

Last week, data on local auto sales were released. Car sales rose 22.2 percent year-on-year in November, while data for the 11 months of the year saw 24.3 percent year-on-year growth. It is good news for car manufacturers and dealers, but bad news for almost every one of us who suffer from the daily traffic scourge.

The data suggests Toyota alone sold a record of 15,275 units in November. It seems Toyota will beat its FY16 sales target of 155k units (+24 percent YoY growth), with nearly 145,000 units sold YTD.

With the Christmas rush upon us, traffic congestion had been getting more unbearable than usual. With the same road space, volume reduction seems the only way to get relief.

Unless we start discouraging more car ownership or impose congestion fees for cars going into central business districts, we can only complain but expect no relief. We also need to impose the requirement to have off street overnight parking on new car buyers. Something has to give… and it shouldn’t be our sanity.

I remember Mar Roxas observing some years back that traffic jams are a good sign the economy is on a robust growth trajectory. On the airport congestion, I remember Mon Jimenez saying it was good news too because it means there are more flights coming carrying more tourists and investors.

I guess they have a point about the good news on the robust economy and the influx of visitors. But the congestion in our streets and in the air is also the result of government’s inability to plan ahead and build the needed infrastructure.

Mar and Mon are now gone, but the problems remain. There is some good news here and there. For one, they have been able to alleviate the airport congestion problem. On time performance of domestic airlines has vastly improved after they finally imposed curbs on general aviation. But on the ground, the gridlock is as frustrating as ever.

When the Duterte administration took over last July, we had this wishful thinking they would be able to address the traffic problem because they have the political will to make tough decisions. That has not happened.

They asked for emergency powers to deal with the traffic problem but so far, after over five months, a Congress where the Duterte supporters enjoy a super majority refuses to give the President such powers. It seems Duterte’s so called congressional supporters do not share the President’s sense of urgency.

On the contrary, congressmen are playing politics. Instead of helping the Transport Secretary, a key member of the Duterte team, they are undermining him.

Even the President’s team at Malacañang, it seems, is making his Transport Secretary’s work more difficult. They are supposed to vet appointments and protect the President from appointing unqualified people. But non qualified people with strong political backing are being appointed to head key DOTr agencies.

I heard two former policemen, favorites of former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, were appointed heads of LRTA and PNR. Luckily the operation of LRT-1 has been privatized so that even an unqualified LRTA head shouldn’t affect operations.

But PNR needs a massive upgrade that requires someone with impeccable credentials to run train operations. An ex-cop who used to run MRT-3 during the Arroyo era just won’t do. Indeed, the problems of MRT-3 likely started during his watch.

The current Transport chief is one hard working guy. But he is no superman. Politics is making his work more difficult.

It seems some members of Congress realized the Transport department has the most number of really juicy projects. That explains their sudden interest in getting appointees at DOTr.

I wouldn’t be surprised if they are also trying to get the Transport chief out of the way. They know he will not participate in their usual self serving schemes, like what the Speaker got into at Terminal 3 when he was DOTC Secretary.

The political bulong brigade may be able to sway Malacañang, but that will not solve our problems. A new Transport chief means wasting another six months while he learns the ropes. It makes more sense to stay with the current one because he is now ready to get the projects rolling.

Besides, the congressional mafia is only interested in what they can get from awarding projects. If they get their way, we will have substandard infrastructure (contractors have to get the cost of “SOPs” by sacrificing quality) and the traffic problems will remain, even become worse than before.

It isn’t as if the current Transport chief hasn’t done anything over the last five months. It isn’t easy to clean up the mess of the past administrations. Between now and June 2017, he has also promised to make decisions on key issues including a new Manila airport and the competing proposals for a north train system.

I have also been told he is ready to roll out his plans to fix the problematic bus franchise system at the root of problems, particularly at EDSA. Emergency powers will facilitate the process.

The seemingly unsolvable problem with the driver’s licensing system has been solved. I heard a formal phase out agreement had been signed with the current provider of the data system. This paves the way for bidding out an updated system that incorporates the new five years expiration for the driver’s license.

The problem with the car plates is with the Supreme Court and hopefully, that case will be resolved soon. This do-it-yourself system of car plates is an embarrassment for the country.

But Sec. Art Tugade is too low key for his own good. I have been telling him they should have a constant flow of new projects, even simple ones that show they are on the ball.

They should actively engage the public and encourage people to send in suggestions. The amount of time spent stuck in traffic is giving people a lot of time to think of creative or common sense solutions.

For instance, I have this friend who has been hammering away on his suggestion to have a properly programmed system of traffic lights. It isn’t a solution that requires rocket science to implement, but it is not being done.

Here is one of his posts on Facebook:

The only logical and practical way of solving the Metro Manila-wide stand-still traffic is to implement immediately a centrally-coordinated and computer-controlled traffic signaling system that is cycle-time optimized and green-wave capable. Enough of the manual-operation of traffic signal (for very long 10-minutes on each direction). That simply causes massive build-up and clogging of all intersections.

Rather, have every one move every less than five minutes by having the main road allocated 1.5 minutes each north-south routes (three minutes total) and one minute for east-west routes (two minutes total). This should be the default setting of all traffic lights so that everyone moves with predictability and the motorists will not become impatient. Motorists blocking intersections are a major cause of traffic jams.

We can all help craft a solution to our traffic problem. On my part, I am committed to keep a hawk’s eye on how DOTr is implementing the projects that should alleviate the problem now and solve it over time. I will be as tough with them as I had been with the last administration when I see projects moving at a snail’s pace.

What we don’t need is a Duterte administration that’s divided because the politicians are lusting for the usual spoils associated with big infra projects. And President Duterte should instruct his palace boys to consult with his point man in transportation before asking him to sign appointment papers.

Tugade needs a team he can trust… not discards from the past or expectant buccaneers from the present. He deserves as much.

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