THE government must start solving the traffic situation in key cities and provinces outside Metro Manila before it gets worse.
Eduardo H. Yap, chairman of the Management Association of the Philippines’s (MAP) Traffic, Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, urged President Aquino to nip in the bud the relatively lighter congestion on roads outside the capital.
This, Yap said, will cause the government less headaches and fewer problems to manage.
Yap said Mr. Aquino should appoint a traffic czar to solve the traffic congestion not just in Metro Manila, but all over the country.
To do this, he said, the President must issue an executive order creating a traffic manager, whose office will serve as the “nerve center” of all public and private efforts in managing and solving the traffic-management problems throughout the archipelago, where signs of traffic congestion are also beginning to appear and begging for solutions.
“We are seeing traffic congestion in just about everywhere—even in Cebu, Tarlac, Pangasinan, Baguio, Davao and Zamboanga. Traffic is not just a problem of residents in Metro Manila, but is beginning to affect even those cities in the provinces. Let’s nip this in the bud as early as now,” Yap said.
Metro Manila’s neighboring provinces and cities are said to be losing P1 billion per day in productivity costs due to the congestion. The metropolis alone loses P2.4 billion daily due to the same problem.
Yap said the government must have a clear road map in addressing the traffic woes around the Philippines. It is not enough to address small-scale issue, he said, noting that long-term problems should be the top priority.
“Solving this humongous traffic problem necessitates collective action. There should be symmetry of actions. The government must know what its left hand is doing. Without a comprehensive traffic-management plan, traffic woes would still haunt us even after two or three years from now, and we cannot be made to suffer for that long. Let’s unite, and solve this traffic-congestion problem as soon as possible,” he said.
The congestion in Metro Manila and its nearby provinces has been there for years now. Experts tag it to the inefficient planning for infrastructure development and the surge in economic expansion.
Aside from appointing Cabinet Secretary Jose Rene D. Almendras as the point man in addressing the road congestion in Metro Manila, the President has approved the implementation of a multitrillion-peso road map for infrastructure development around the metropolis.
The P4.76-trillion Roadmap for Transport Infrastructure Development for Metro Manila and its Surrounding Areas, otherwise known as the Dream Plan, calls for the establishment of a modern, well-integrated and -coordinated, and affordable transport system for Metro Manila and the adjacent areas of Bulacan, Pampanga, Cavite and Batangas.
The system will consist of expressways, new roads elevated and on ground, railways elevated and on ground, subways, airports and seaports. Near-term components are for completion by 2016, while medium- and longer-term components are for completion by 2020 and 2030, respectively.
When completed, the plan will accomplish at least three objectives: The reduction of traffic congestion in the metropolitan area; the diminution of air pollution in the metropolitan area and its environs; and the reduction of transportation costs to the urban population, especially the poor and other low-income groups.
At the level of the individual, completion will result in the reduction of the average travel fare of commuters from the current P42 to P24, and also the lowering of the current average travel time of 80 minutes to 31 minutes.
Aside from requiring the construction of 504 kilometers of intercity and urban expressways, 137 km of other roads and 318 km of railways, the road map also states that economic losses due to the chronic traffic in Metro Manila could balloon to P6 billion per day, from the current P2.4 billion, by 2030.
As of today, roughly 20 percent to 30 percent of the Japan International Cooperation Agency’s Dream Plan has been done—that is, in terms of design and implementation.