New rush hour traffic scheme on EDSA to undergo dry run next week

August 10, 2018

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said a dry run to restrict cars with only a driver on board from traversing EDSA during rush hours will start on August 15.

In a press briefing, MMDA general manager Jojo Garcia said the dry run will be conducted for one week on entire EDSA, starting August 15, from 7 to 10 in the morning and 6 to 9 pm in the evening.

“Let us see for one week how the HOV (high occupancy vehicle)  scheme will work. We are calling on the participation of the public,” said Garcia.

The HOV scheme was approved by the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the governing and policy-making body of the MMDA, on Tuesday.

Based on the agency’s traffic simulation, Garcia said the policy is expected to result in a remarkable decrease in travel time and increase in travel speed along EDSA.

“With the proposed policy, EDSA will have 40 percent less vehicles,” said Garcia.

Based on EDSA’s annual average daily traffic in 2017, there are 367,738 vehicles traversing along the major artery daily. From this figure, 67 percent or a total of 247,527 are private motor vehicles.

The survey also cited 60 to 70 percent of private motor vehicles along EDSA are single occupancy vehicles or an average of 148,516 to 185,645 in actual units per day.

Garcia admitted the ban would congest other major thoroughfares and inner roads when the ban on single occupancy vehicles takes effect.

“The agency had been relentless in clearing secondary roads and alternate routes every day but we can only do so much,” said Garcia.

He said the agency will make use of the no contact apprehension policy in counting the vehicles that will violate this during the dry run. The NCAP utilizes closed circuit television cameras installed along EDSA in monitoring and catching traffic violators.

“As part of the information drive, we will just inform and warn motorists about the HOV scheme,” said Garcia.

The scheme is the agency’s short-term solution to Metro Manila’s traffic problems amid the ongoing infrastructure projects along EDSA and elsewhere. DMS