Exemption deception

Every time I attend an event that requires driving, I am bombarded with complaints about the 24/7 traffic and there being too many cars. As I write this column, I am “sitting out” or opting not to attend a birthday and retirement party Wednesday, May 7, at Solaire North.

Aside from the extremely stressful drive from Kapitolyo to Quezon City, my vehicle is not allowed to travel under the number coding scheme. I could have taken Grab, but there’s no guarantee I can get one easily on my late evening return. Like a good citizen, I obey the rules.

Unfortunately, there is apparently a new scheme in town where several new vehicle owners are more favored than others. I have long noticed it, asked about it and still can’t make sense why electric vehicles are exempted from the vehicle reduction program or “coding.”

Aside from being exempted from number coding restrictions, people have told me that those cars with green color plates that say “electric” are reportedly allowed to drive in the City of Makati.

In an effort to be open minded, I said to myself that it must be a special program or exemption designed to reward people for shifting to renewable energy source vehicles or to promote the shift to electric vehicles. It sounds idealistic but improbable, given that the government collects billions of pesos from taxes on petroleum products.

I personally have no grudge or bias against e-vehicles even though I would never get one personally. My attempt to be open minded about the coding exemption for e-vehicles did not last long!

It occurred to me that the coding system is aimed at vehicle reduction, not vehicle addition. Regardless of fuel type, each and every vehicle occupies space or a couple of square meters on the road.

Granting exemptions to e-vehicles to the disadvantage of gas or diesel vehicles is unfair, discriminatory and likely illegal. I don’t know what law or department order was issued but if it is disadvantageous or discriminatory, then it is illegal.

The exemption, while useful for daily drivers, is not really a very big advantage because in the end, they create their own hell where more cars are added to the traffic jams. You just get to crawl on EDSA one more day a week than us petrol heads do. It is a marketing gimmick.

On the topic of vehicle volume, we keep hearing from the MMDA and HPG that EDSA’s volume of users has constantly increased if not multiplied through the years. They even say that the designed volume or number of cars for EDSA has been far exceeded, just like the number of inmates in all our penitentiaries.

My point is, where does it stop? Or what is the government doing about it? One way or another, something has to be done to wean Metro Manila and even the suburbs from cars as well as motorcycles. We cannot simply recycle or rebuild roads, we need to make new ones.

Last week, news came out that the planned Makati subway was being put on hold if not discontinued because of territorial realignment between the cities of Makati and Taguig. While the developer goes to Singapore for arbitration, Makati and Taguig both lose by failing to cooperate.

Last Monday, I attended the wake of a good friend at the Heritage memorial gardens in Taguig at around 6 p.m. and going home, using Waze, I was directed to take the Skyway northbound and exit on the Quezon avenue off ramp. Knowing EDSA would surely be crawling, I decided to have the adventure drive on Skyway.

People were warning me that it won’t be faster, there would be traffic also, etc. I stuck to the speed limit, appreciated the well-lit road in comparison to EDSA and, to my surprise, I did it in 35 minutes instead of the grueling 1 to 1.5 hours on EDSA.

There was a time when SMC’s Ramon Ang playfully suggested that in order to relieve EDSA of the inescapable carmaggedons of the future, the quickest solution would be to build a skyway over EDSA for cars or elevated bus stops. That’s an idea now worth considering.

If DOTr Secretary Vince Dizon wants to modernize mass transit, why not build an elevated bus lane and bus stops, free up the bus lanes for cars or convert the former bus lanes into ground level trams or trains that loop around EDSA? No Right of Way issues!

The “new” train or tram could be a mixed “class” system where certain cars are the usual MRT/LRT type trains, while other trains would be “Special” or single seat trains where office folks and executives can pay a little higher, breathe easier and experience “international” standard train rides.  

This type of “improvement” would slowly but surely attract those car owners and drivers who don’t take the bus or MRT because it’s overly congested and oppressive for others. DOTr simply needs to complete the loop so executives have “Grab” stations at every stop.

As the saying goes: “If a cat aims to become a lion, it should stop eating rats.”

If Metro Manila is to ease up on traffic congestion, improve air quality, efficiency etc., then all that is needed is the vision and political will, not exemption by deception or promoting electric vehicles at other peoples’ expense or suffering.

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