Who’s to blame for traffic lights failure?

Who is to blame for the malfunctioning traffic lights that cause monstrous traffic jams in the major thoroughfares of Metro Manila?

The Department of Public Works and Highways and the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority have resorted to finger-pointing as the actual jurisdiction remains a highly debatable issue.

According to Freddie Galano, DPWH-Traffic Engineering Center chief, the malfunction in the traffic lights was caused by either power failure or busted bulbs.

Galano practically blamed the MMDA for the busted lights because it has the mandate to conduct maintenance work on the traffic lights.

"If the lights are busted, the MMDA is supposed to replace them. The life span of traffic light bulbs used to be more than a year or so but because the MMDA uses bulbs with poor or low quality, madalas tuloy mapundi," Galano told The STAR.

He also claimed that one of the causes is the habit of MMDA traffic enforcers of overriding the traffic lights system.

"Traffic lights in Metro Manila are synchronized with one another and once they touch one post, it would affect other posts in a chain reaction," Galano said.

He added that the MMDA has already been informed about this but no action has yet been taken to address the issue.

On the part of the MMDA, Assistant General Manager for Operations Rogelio Uranza argued that the problem with the traffic lights is not their fault.

Uranza stressed that the main problem is the lack of an information campaign on the part of the DPWH about the new traffic lights system. On top of this, there are also compatibility issues to contend with as the project proponents neglected to implement a complete change in the traffic lights system.

Uranza explained that the DPWH claims it has completed 398 out of 419 intersections under the "SMART" Traffic Lights System project, all of which are interconnected and controlled by a command center which is the TEC of the DPWH.

Bad driving habits of motorists coupled with the lack of an information campaign on the system causes most of the malfunctions in the traffic lights, he said.

Uranza pointed out that when the computer system of the SMART Traffic Lights encounters a problem in its operation due to the erring motorists, the yellow lights at the intersections concerned flash continuously as an automatic reaction.

The MMDA traffic enforcers are not authorized to operate the control boxes at the intersections nor do they have access to these.

Once the traffic lights go off, the traffic enforcers immediately inform the Metrobase of the MMDA which in turn relays the information to the TEC. Uranza added that the TEC does not have any personnel at night which is the reason why most of the malfunctioning traffic lights are taken care of only in the morning.

"I don’t know what they mean by overriding. There is no basis for this claim because the traffic enforcers have no control over the traffic lights," Uranza said. It was also revealed that the incompatibility of the old equipment with the new system also causes the malfunctioning of the traffic lights.

The controller system, transmission lines and even the lanterns (traffic lights) are all not compatible with the SMART system.

As far as the accusation for the use of substandard light bulbs, Uranza countered that the MMDA purchases imported Philips light bulbs from Korea which are at par with the accepted standards for the old traffic lights.

"In fact they (DPWH) should already be using LED’s (Light Emitting Diodes) for the traffic lights," Uranza said.