One of the main problems of commuters either thru public transport or private vehicles is the never-ending traffic, especially in EDSA. This entire route (Monumento to Pasay) should be traveled by approximate 45 minutes only but now, it will take you to about 4 hours at least. Cristy Fermin used to describe the scenario as: "Nalipat na ang mga pagong sa EDSA." (The turtles have been transferred to EDSA.)
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| EDSA Traffic (Source: philstar.com) |
In fairness with the MMDA, they continuously look for possible solutions with this problem. Number coding, bus lanes, specific bus stations, having motorcycle lanes, reducing the number of U-turns are just some of the options they made to help reduce the everyday burden of commuters.
However, I find this as just a correction but not a corrective action. They are not giving solutions to the main cause of the problem or should I say, they haven't seen the root cause of the dilemma.
Lately, Mommy and I were having a conversation about this topic since this is the one being discussed by Kabayan Noli de Castro in his morning radio program. One problem that we thought is the continuously increasing volume of vehicles travelling EDSA. Of course, I know driver discipline has a great impact in this issue too.
Aside from private vehicles, there are also huge numbers of buses that use this main road. To add, some of these buses are considered colurum or has no legal permits to travel. Just like some of the buses I encountered in the past few weeks, there are several buses travelling with green plates. As far as I know, such type of plates are for private and not for a passenger-type vehicles.
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| Bus with green plate |
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| Bus with green plate |
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| Bus with green plate |
Now, the authorities are doing another possible "temporary" solution. They are assigning Highway Patrol Group (HPG) of PNP to lead traffic management in EDSA. I am hoping that this solution, though a temporary one, will help reduce the traffic in EDSA. I am also hoping that reducing such "colorum" buses will be put into consideration.
What possible problems and solutions do you think of EDSA traffic?
