By VANNE TERRAZOLA
Senator Grace Poe yesterday questioned the implementation of the driver-only ban on EDSA during rush hours despite the supposed lack of information and alternate routes behind its plan.
The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) is set to conduct a dry run starting today the scheme that bans vehicles without passengers.
The dry run will last for one week, according to MMDA general manager Jose Garcia.
But Poe, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Services, maintained that the MMDA has a lot of explaining to do.
“First, the public must be informed as regards the facts and data that led the Metro Manila Council (MMC) to conclude that a ban on single-passenger vehicles in EDSA could reduce traffic all throughout Metro Manila,” she said in a statement.
“What makes them so absolutely sure that their proposal will work? What was the result of the trial conducted in December last year? Was it effective? Did it considerably reduce traffic?” Poe asked.
The MMDA, earlier, cited its survey showing that around 60 to 75 percent of cars traveling EDSA are “single occupancy,” which translates 148,516 to 185,645 units per day.
Poe, however, reiterated anew the need for alternate routes to accommodate the percentage that the MMDA seeks to remove from the EDSA during rush hours.
“Where will the 70 percent of those who traverse EDSA on a daily basis be re-routed? They better make sure that the inner city and barangay roads, as well as the main thoroughfares aside from EDSA, all around Metro Manila can handle the affected motorists,” Poe said.
“If not, we will just be replicating the horrors of EDSA traffic everywhere,” she added.
Moreover, Poe said the MMDA should have considered the composition of the average 70 percent of EDSA motorists who will be affected.
“They are probably the working solo parents, parents who have to drop their kids along their way to work, spouses who live in the same city but work in different cities, young professionals or workers who cannot afford to hire their own drivers and yet are required to be on time in their offices,” she noted.