The Management Association of the Philippines (MAP) is recommending appointment of a traffic czar to straighten out the severe traffic and commuter transportation situation in Metro Manila.
In an open letter to President Benigno Aquino III, MAP suggests appointing a traffic czar—preferably Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene Almendras—“to act and show who is in charge” and take overall responsibility for road traffic management, including implementing road engineering refinements on all national roads in Metro Manila.
MAP is a 65-year-old management organization whose 768 members represent a cross-section of CEOs, COOs, and other top management practitioners from the largest local and multinational companies operating in the Philippines.
Cargo transport and supply chain groups have been pushing for such a government appointee to oversee the country’s logistics and supply chain industry.
MAP also suggests to invest the traffic czar with the power to deputize, utilize, coordinate, avail and, when necessary, prevail over all relevant national government agencies, including the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, Department of Public Works and Highways, Department of Transportation and Communications, Land Transportation Office, Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, and Fort Bonifacio Development Corporation under the Bases Conversion Development Authority.
The traffic czar should also work to reduce the excessive number of illegally operated public utility vehicles (PUVs) and institute an organized bus dispatch system such that only enough buses are dispatched on the road as needed.
MAP believes severe traffic congestion and commuter transportation problems besetting the metropolis are “behavioral and structural in nature, and should be addressed accordingly.”
“These problems evolved over a long period of time, should be addressed through the three most basic elements of effective traffic management—road engineering, education of all stakeholders and enforcement (3 ‘Es’) of traffic rules,” MAP said.
The group explained that “deficient road engineering prevents efficient traffic flow, essential to optimize limited road space.” The deficiency allows drivers to wantonly switch or block lanes on vital road arteries without regard for other motorists, while regulatory weakness allows the proliferation of PUVs, MAP said.
Lack of education, it added, “contributes to diminished civic consciousness and responsible driving behavior that, coupled with ineffective enforcement, have rendered traffic rules as mere ‘suggestions’ to be ignored with impunity.”
Inadequate enforcement of anti-smoke belching regulations, on the other hand, produces an unacceptably high air pollution level that makes respiratory diseases prevalent in the metropolis, in turn raising public health costs, diminishing human productivity, and lowering the quality of life.
“Lack of the 3 ‘Es’ is compounded by three other factors: severe deficiency in mass transit systems, unsustainable urban development practices, and an ineffective governance structure of the metropolis,” MAP noted.
Due to this, MAP suggests a specially trained Highway Patrol Group be assigned within the Philippine National Police under the traffic czar to put order to the “chaotic traffic through strict enforcement of traffic rules and regulations.”
The czar must also introduce road engineering refinements essential to effective traffic management and efficient traffic flow.
The group also suggests the fast-tracked upgrade and capacity expansion of the Metro Rail Transit 3 as well as the upgrade of major national roads into expressways. In connection with this, MAP said the resiliency of all national major and radial roads against flood should be improved.
Another recommendation is the use of fast construction methods involving prefabricated steel or precast concrete bridging systems, which “offer the fastest solution for grade separation, to quickly eliminate at-grade traffic-clogging intersections along busy major national roads.”
The group likewise suggests all large schools be required to provide bus service to their students and adequate passenger loading and unloading spaces within school premises. Express lanes for high-occupancy vehicles and cargo-carrying vehicles must also be provided on wide national roads such as EDSA and Commonwealth.
Hard or long-term measures include building new bridges across Pasig River; resolving issues hindering fast-tracking of mass transit systems; requiring adherence to best practices for mixed-use property development; issuing an executive order directing the planning of a high-capacity subway system under the entire length of EDSA; and directing the filing of a legislative bill to restructure governance of Metro Manila.
MAP said the severe traffic and transportation problems “are not without solutions but they will require immediate, firm and resolute action from the national leadership.”
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