Suggestions are great, especially if they make sense.
“The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) on Tuesday shot down the proposal of Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) member Ariel Inton to ban private vehicles on EDSA during the weekday morning rush and give more road space for public transport vehicles,” reports Mike Frialde on Philstar.com.
MMDA Chairman Francis Tolentino stated that “Inton’s proposal needs further study” because he thinks it’s “unrealistic” to implement it “with the current traffic and vehicle situation on the 23.8-kilometer long highway that serves as Metro Manila’s major connecting artery from Caloocan City to Pasay City.”
READ: Proposed traffic scheme prioritizes PUVs on EDSA
Tolentino explained that “Inton’s proposal would also most likely reap opposition from private motorists as there is no effective mass transport system in Metro Manila and even along EDSA at present.”
The report noted: “Presently, only about 7,000 public buses and the Metro Rail Transit (MRT) are the public transport modes available to most commuters on EDSA.”
As such, Tolentino pointed out that “passengers of private vehicles who would be barred from using their vehicles during the morning weekday rush hours could not be accommodated by public buses.”
The MMDA said that the number of private vehicles going through EDSA is anywhere from 121,000 (Monday to Thursday) to around 241,000 (for Fridays, Saturday, and Sundays).
“Those 121,000 people may not be accommodated by 7,000 buses,” said Tolentino.
Tolentino is most probably right, as there are other passengers aside from the theoretical 121,000 private vehicle owners.
Screengrab from a Solar News video clip
