House eyes one year to solve EDSA traffic

MANILA, Philippines — The chairman of the House of Representatives committee on transportation yesterday promised to offer a “roadmap to finally solve the traffic problem along EDSA.”

Upon the instructions of Speaker Alan Peter Cayetano, Samar Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento said he has started informal discussions with various government officials and private sector leaders to set the stage for a series of hearings focusing on how to ease traffic congestion along EDSA.

“Speaker Cayetano wants our traffic problem on EDSA solved within one year. EDSA’s traffic problem is causing too much economic losses for the government and for our people on a daily basis,” he said.

Traffic jams will always happen and will result in losses and inconvenience on the part of the public “unless we do something about them,” he said.

During the 2016 election campaign, President Duterte promised to solve EDSA traffic in three months. He is now on his fourth year in office and the situation is the same, if not worse, as three years ago.

Recently, the President said travel from Makati to Cubao in Quezon City would soon take just five minutes.

The Metro Manila Development Authority decided to ban provincial buses from traversing EDSA and to remove bus terminals along the highways, but a Quezon City court has stopped its plan.

Reduce vehicles

Sarmiento said the key to easing traffic congestion on EDSA is to reduce the number of vehicles using the road.

“For us to attain it, the collective effort of the executive, legislative, judiciary and the private sector is needed,” he said. 

He said proposals to consolidate all bus operations in Metro Manila should be seriously considered “for us to start a synchronized dispatch system.”

“There are way too many buses on EDSA and most of the time, especially during off-peak hours, they are half-empty, which makes them inefficient in the use of road space,” he added.

Sarmiento pointed out that with consolidated operations and a centralized dispatching system, there would be less traffic during off-peak hours “because there will be fewer buses on the road.”

He said another proposal to ease EDSA traffic is to do away with the boundary system for bus drivers and crew.

The Department of Labor and Employment had ordered bus owners to pay their bus personnel fixed salaries.