MMDA to install rumble bars along Macapagal Blvd

MANILA, Philippines - The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) will install rumble bars on Dios­dado Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay City to address the problem of illegal racing.

Spokesman Yves Gonzales said in a phone interview that the installation will start this week in areas pinpointed by their engineering department as “strategic locations.”

Rumble bars are the mounted white strips on the road that help keep motorists awake and remind them to slow down.

Saferoad.com described rumble bars as “surface mounted units that provide a visual and audible warning to alert motorists of hazardous conditions ahead. This helps prepare drivers for unusual or unexpected traffic conditions such as construction zones.”

The agency’s move came two weeks after one of their traffic enforcers, Raul Reoteres, was beaten there by about 30 drag racers, who were drunk and are allegedly from “rich families.”

MMDA chairman Francis Tolentino had been calling on the Pasay City government to ban gasoline stations along the boulevard from selling liquor. The MMDA also set a 60-kilometer per hour speed limit along the boulevard.

In a separate interview over dzBB, Gonzales said the rumble bars are part of the agency’s “long-term” solution to address the illegal racing problem.

He said the same solution was applied to solve a similar problem in White Plains, Quezon City.