“Kung gusto mo ng additional capacity, pumunta ka sa itaas.”
(If you want additional capacity, you go up.)
This is what incoming Transportation secretary Arthur Tugade said as he revealed that President-elect Rodrigo Duterte is considering installing cable cars in Metro Manila to ease traffic jams.
Tugade said he borrowed the idea from Bolivia, which has the largest urban cable car system in the world. He added talks are now ongoing with a South American company that supplies 35-seater commuter cable cars.
“Pag nagdagdag tayo ng kalsada at nag-construct tayo, lalong makaka-traffic… Pinag-aaralan ho yung detalye — maybe it’s technically not accurate on my part to be saying that — but suffice to say at the moment that’s it is seriously being looked into,” he said.
(If we build additional roads, it could worsen traffic… We’re still studying details — maybe it’s technically not accurate on my part to be saying that — but suffice to say at the moment that’s it is seriously being looked into.)
The project could first be implemented in Pasig and Makati, although Tugade added that he hopes to eventually build a cable car system that would run from Sta. Rosa, Laguna, to Makati City.
Other solutions the new administration is looking into? Opening up gated villages to ease the worsening traffic in Metro Manila.
Duterte is seeking to emergency powers from Congress to solve the traffic woes in the next two years.
READ: Duterte eyes emergency powers to address traffic crisis
