Palace: Give high-occupancy vehicle traffic scheme a chance

MANILA, Philippines — Malacañang yesterday urged the public to give the new traffic scheme called high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) a chance after some drivers described the plan as discriminatory. 

Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has good intentions for implementing the scheme, which would ban driver-only vehicles along EDSA during rush hours. 

“The MMDA prohibits driver-only vehicles for a period of time to encourage people to resort to car pooling. If there is carpooling there are less cars on the road, and now that gasoline prices are rising, this can help us save on gasoline. So let’s give it a chance,” Roque said at a press briefing. 

“We are exploring everything to come up with a solution to the traffic problem,” he added. 

Under the HOV scheme, driver-only vehicles are barred from traversing EDSA from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. on weekdays. 

Some critics claimed the scheme discriminates against people who cannot hire drivers. The Senate has approved a resolution asking the MMDA to suspend the scheme. 

Roque said other countries, including the United States, have adopted a similar scheme.

“It is being implemented in several parts of the world. They did not complain of discrimination. It’s about the use of police power to reduce the volume of vehicles on the road and to save on gasoline and diesel,” the presidential spokesman said. 

About 4,200 motorists violated the new scheme during the first day of its dry run last Wednesday. 

Lawmakers complain

Several lawmakers claimed the MMDA’s HOV policy would clear EDSA of congestion but transfer the traffic problem to alternate routes along smaller streets. 

“So instead of having a traffic problem only on EDSA, we will have traffic everywhere, even in the outlying barangay roads. Without any alternate mode of transport, our so-called singles will continue using their vehicles even with this ban,” said Samar Rep. Edgar Sarmiento.  

“This means that we will not reduce the volume of vehicles but we would just send them elsewhere,” Sarmiento said, adding smaller Metro Manila streets would “definitely absorb the volume of vehicles which would only widen the area of the gridlock.” 

He said unoccupied transport networking vehicles (TNVs) like Grab cars and taxis would be forced to use side streets, which would further clog these small alternate routes all over the metropolis. 

He suggested that MMDA should first consider synchronizing the flow of passenger buses plying Metro Manila’s most important highway.

Sarmiento said driver discipline remains the biggest cause of Metro Manila’s traffic and buses are the biggest culprits. 

“I keep on citing very specific examples, 47 terminals of buses along EDSA. They’re all contributory to the traffic mess,” said former Manila mayor and now Rep. Lito Atienza of party-list Buhay.

He said the MMDA should remove corruption and fire their erring employees, remove bus terminals on EDSA and apprehend colorum buses instead of punishing the people.

Grab Philippines urged authorities to carefully consider the interests of the ride-sharing industry in enforcing the HOV, which is currently on a dry run.

“We agree that one way to solve congestion is to improve shared mobility.  Grab has always advocated ways to improve mobility through solutions such as GrabShare here in the Philippines, and GrabHitch in Singapore,” Grab Philippines public affairs head Leo Gonzales said.

“However, we hope that authorities will carefully put the interests of the ride-sharing industry as an important consideration in imposing new rules and regulations,” he added.

MMDA Regulation 18-005 imposed a driver-only ban, which the agency started implementing Wednesday but no traffic violation receipts were issued yet against violators.

To guide passengers and drivers on the new scheme, Grab urged passengers to avoid setting pick-up and drop-off points along EDSA.

“If unavoidable to pass by EDSA without a passenger, we encourage our drivers to use the yellow lane and take the nearest exit away from EDSA,” Gonzales said. – With Delon Porcalla, Richmond Mercurio