THE Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recorded an average of 405,882 vehicles a day traveling daily along Epifanio delos Santos Ave (EDSA) as of August this year. This compares with 383,828 vehicles recorded last year. There were thus 22,074 more vehicles using EDSA daily this year than last year.
The number of cars increased by 4,104 – from 251,628 last year to 255,732 this year. The number of buses increased by 226 – from 1,940 last year to 2,166 this year. The number of motorcycles increased by 24,085 – from 86,082 last year to 110,167 this year.
In his State of the Nation Address (SONA) last July 22. President Duterte said he sees improvement in EDSA traffic by December, to reduce the trip from Ayala in Makati to Cubao, Quezon City, to just five minutes. An MMDA official said a combination of government public works projects and MMDA plans could achieve that goal.
These include the many elevated highways now being rushed to completion. The opening of so many alternate routes should keep thousands of vehicles away from EDSA. Along with these concrete projects, the MMDA has proposed to ban provincial buses.
But the MMDA report last week that thousands of new vehicles are being added daily to EDSA traffic seems to indicate that there is a race underway – the kilometers of new highways being built vs. the number of vehicles being added to EDSA traffic. There may indeed be many more kilometers of new roads, but there are also many more thousands of new vehicles. In the end, the result may be a kind of draw. We will be back to where we started.
So many ideas have been proposed for additional roadways, for elevated greenways for hikers, for moving government offices outside the city. December is now only three months away and each new report – such as the rising number of cars, buses, and motorcycles using EDSA – adds to the despair of commuters.
But, as they say, hope springs eternal in the human breast. We must continue to hope that our transportation and Metro Manila officials will come up with immediately do-able plans that will make President Duterte, with his prediction of a five-minute EDSA trip by December, a prophet of our time.
