MANILA, Philippines - There have been improvements in the flow of traffic along EDSA since President Duterte assumed office because motorists are following traffic laws and the Department of Transportation has been actively enforcing them, a group said Friday.
“Motorists are cooperating, following traffic laws. Call it the Duterte magic on people that has trickled down to our normally abusive drivers and motorists,” Nick Elman, executive officer of the Road Users Protection Advocates, said in a statement.
However, he said disciplining motorists is only a small part of the solution.
“The bigger part is improving infrastructure and limiting number of vehicles on our roads,” Elman said.
He said road congestion can be solved by creating more space for cars and relocating traffic magnets – giant malls and airports – to ease clogging on major roads.
Elman said the Ninoy Aquino International Airport should be relocated since its traffic congestion problem affects major roads linked to NAIA.
He cited an incident in which a plane overshot the NAIA runway and plowed through traffic, killing eight people along the South Luzon Expressway in 1989.
In 2011, a cargo plane crashed into a heavily populated community near the airport, leaving 13 people dead, Elman said.
Three people aboard the aircraft perished. The other fatalities, mostly children, were residents who died in a fire that resulted from the crash, he added.
Elman said another accident is that of a two-seater Cessna plane that crashed on a residential lot in Merville Village in Parañaque, killing its pilot. The upscale barangay is next to the NAIA runways.
No to emergency powers
Meanwhile, transport group Kilusan sa Pagbabago ng Industriya ng Transportasyon (KAPIT) opposed the administration’s plan to grant emergency powers to Duterte to address traffic congestion in Metro Manila.
KAPIT chairman Vigor Mendoza said yesterday that there are solutions that can be done within the next 120 days without the need for emergency powers.
He said emergency powers were granted to then president Fidel Ramos to address power shortages but this resulted in the doubling of the price of electricity.
Mendoza made recommendations based on a study, “The Crowded City,” published in June 1992.
The study said traffic congestion in Metro Manila was due to the increased number of motor vehicles, inadequate roads, increased population and the motorists’ lack of discipline.
Mendoza recommended modernizing the transport system; controlling the number of units dispatched; eradicating colorum and out-of-line vehicles; and imposing Technical Education and Skills Development Authority certification and regular drug testing for public utility vehicle drivers.
He also recommended more frequent anti-smoke belching drives, that local governments pass ordinances that would open private subdivisions to traffic, opening the roads of military and police camps to the public and limiting truck deliveries from 10 p.m. to 4 a.m.
Mendoza said what the study shows is that “there are many things that government can do to alleviate traffic on the ground immediately without need of emergency powers, but would require closer cooperation between and among various national agencies and local government units.”
Asked if the study is still relevant to the present traffic situation in Metro Manila, he said the study remains useful since the basic causes of traffic are still the same. – Perseus Echeminada, Robertzon Ramirez