No ‘color-coding’ up to Christmas

The Unified Vehicle Volume Reduction Program, or vehicle "color-coding," is suspended starting today until Christmas Day, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) Chairman Bayani Fernando announced yesterday.

In his weekly radio program over radio station dzBB, Fernando said the vehicle "color-coding" was suspended in response to appeals by motorists who are having difficulty shopping for the holidays.

Traffic has worsened over the past few weeks, especially near malls and shopping centers like Divisoria and Quiapo districts in Manila where the heavy volume of pedestrian and vehicle traffic has been aggravated by the lack of police enforcement in the areas.

Traffic along the stretch of EDSA has also been a nightmare for the last several days, motorists and commuters have complained.

In Quiapo, for instance, commuters said it takes vehicles one hour to go from Lerma street in Sampaloc to the Quiapo Church, a stretch of less than a kilometer.

Aside from the heavy volume of pedestrians and vehicles, Quiapo residents said policemen do little to ease the flow of traffic although the police station is only 10 meters from the place of the traffic bottleneck.

In Divisoria, considered as Metro Manila’s bargain capital due to its low-priced goods, traffic has virtually been at a standstill since the start of the Christmas season.

Despite the complaints of residents, however, the MMDA insists Metro Manila traffic has "eased up."

"We think this could be because a lot of people are either done with their shopping already or have gone home to their provinces," said MMDA traffic operations director Angelito Vergel de Dios.

De Dios also dismissed fears that the suspension of vehicle color coding would result in heavier vehicle volume on Metro Manila’s roads.