Should we ban private cars from EDSA during rush hour?

This was essentially the question posed last week by a board member of the LTFRB in an attempt to implement a reverse coding scheme that would only allow cars that were coding from everywhere else to be driven along EDSA during morning rush hour. In short, if your plate ends with 1 or 2, you would be the only ones allowed to ply EDSA during 6-9am.

Shortly after it caught fire on social media, Atty. Rod Nepomoceno invited me on his weekly program, Opposing Views on 9TV, to debate the matter with the Federation of Jeepney Operators & Drivers Association of the Philippines president, Ms.  Zeny De Maranan.

A full copy of the debate is available for viewing online at www.jamesdeakin.ph but in summary, let me just outline a few key points.

But first, allow me tell you a quick story. Back in the Sixties, when the race to space was on, the Americans discovered that during simulations, the astronauts couldn’t write any of their observations down on paper because there was no gravity to allow the flow of ink down to the tip of their pens. Knowing how important it was to keep a journal, scientists spent many years and millions of dollars to develop a pen that could write in zero gravity.

Meanwhile, the Russians brought a pencil.

Now whether that was an urban legend or not, there’s a very simple moral to the story. And in our case, a lot of convoluted solutions are constantly being thrown at us (mostly the private motorist that has little to no representation in government) when the answers are basic. Very basic. It starts with decentralizing.

I have said this time and time again, but until government starts penalizing development in prime areas and incentivizing those in developing areas, we will always be like crabs in a bucket.

Secondly, go back to the root of the problem and start enforcing stricter licensing requirements. The mere fact that it is much, much harder to get a postpaid cell phone line in this country than it is to operate a 32,000-pound bus with close to a hundred lives on board, speaks volumes about why our roads are in the state they’re in.

Next, discipline. This should come with licensing, but it needs to be backed up with enforcement. The bus operators will argue that they occupy a smaller foot print than cars carrying the same amount of passengers, but if those cars do not stop diagonally every six to ten feet, the flowing cars will always cause far less traffic.

The most natural way to achieve this is to remove the incentive. Bus drivers and conductors cannot be allowed to operate under commission.  Period. But the mere fact that they are privately run means that we will never be able to implement it––with the bus drivers themselves being the first to rebuke the mandatory payment of fixed salaries. So it goes to plan B: have them state-run.

Some suggested phasing out cars older than 15 years. Now while I see the logic in this, realistically, it may be a bit too radical for a developing country like ours; instead, why not make stricter roadworthy and emission-testing and base the phasing out on that. Because I know of cars that are 25 years old and driven daily that are in far better condition than many poorly maintained 5-year-old ones.

Then you have the collectors. It wouldn’t be fair to them. But in the end, if it had to be done, I would agree only if we started with the jeepneys.

There are of course a ton of other solutions like a better mass transit system, which HAS to be done, but because of the question posed by the board member of the LTFRB, I’m only focusing on the immediate right now and feel that the selective banning of private cars from EDSA during peak time will only cause the pipes to burst outside of it, so to speak.

Think of it like a water piping system.  As your city grows, you need to lay down larger pipes. EDSA is the largest pipe. If that is congested, forcing the water to the secondary pipes is certainly not the answer. It is the reverse. Think of Ondoy when they let water out of the dams. Ah, you’re getting it now, huh? Not to mention the fact that, once the ‘allowed car’ leaves EDSA, it is now not allowed at its’ destination because it is coding. Which defeats the whole purpose. It acts as a plug at the end of your newly freed up pipe.

So, no, I do not think private cars should be banned from EDSA during peak hour in a reverse coding scheme. And I also think that the private motorists should stop being used as lab rats for traffic experiments. Instead, why don’t we put our heads together and try and come up with something completely out of the box. Something that doesn’t always penalize a certain group and create a bigger divide between classes.

Now I know this is radical, but hear me out. Because there’s nothing really conventional about Metro Manila, perhaps we should look at unconventional ideas to address our problems. Case in point: we love our malls, right? And people like SM, Ayala, and Robinson’s love to build them for us. But the problem is, they end up adding to the problem by clogging up our roadways. So, why not make them our roadways instead?

Try and imagine air-conditioned tube-malls with travellators, running either underground or alongside (whichever is the path of least resistance) the toxic areas (say, EDSA from Commonwealth to Magallanes), down Ayala and Buendia ave, C-5, etc. It would be no different to airports where you have shops, restaurants, bars, and even small offices along either side.

I’m no civil engineer, but I’d be willing to bet that the infrastructure cost is negligible compared to mass transit systems––be it at-grade, subterranean or elevated––plus it is even better for PWD’s than the LRT/MRT and Buses. Kids can also use it safely.

And because it is commercial, tenants and mall owners would gladly pick up the cost of development and maintenance in exchange for the traffic, which would not only make it more affordable, it would eliminate the need for an expensive and congested ticketing system. Once again, it is no different to their current business model, except it also serves as a roadway where commuters can commute on foot at a steady pace of 10km/h (average of say 6km/h for the travellator and 4km/h walking pace) which should make the commute from Makati to Ortigas around 30-45 mins.

Eventually, once they study the flow they could introduce high-speed lanes; plus, if we made it even half the width of even just the north or southbound lanes EDSA, we could incorporate dedicated bike lanes with bike rental too. The only motorized vehicles allowed would be authorized electric golf carts (like they have in airports) that could assist in cases of emergencies.

So there. It may sound crazy, but hey, we live in a crazy place. We will happily go out of our way on our days off to go to a massive mall like MOA and walk around aimlessly in circles for several hours, why not toward a goal? 

What do you think? Join the discussion on www.jamesdeakin.ph.