Traffic Congestion in Manila
Traffic Congestion in Manila
Traffic Congestion in Manila
IN
MANILA
(Analytic Paper)
Submitted by:
Submitted to:
In recent times,
the traffic demand in Metro Manila is around 12.8 million trips. While 69% of that
amount is made using our available public transportation like jeepneys, buses, the LRT
and the MRT, a significantly lesser portion is done through driving or riding private
vehicles.
And yet this mode of transport, the private mode, takes up 78% of road space. Now why
Traffic congestion is a state wherein transport is slowed, and more vehicles are
of transport you’re using, we’ll focus only on the current automobile road traffic here in
the Philippines.
Metro Manila is again set to take the dubious honor as the world's worst city for
drivers, according to traffic navigation app Waze. It takes around 4.9 minutes for a
motorist to cover just 1 kilometer in the Philippine capital, Waze country head Sarah
where it takes 4 minutes to travel 1 kilometer, and Jakarta, Indonesia where it takes
3.83 minutes to drive the same distance. Other cities that were noted in the report are
Sao Paulo, Brazil and Tel Aviv, Israel, where it takes an average of more than two and a
half minutes to travel 1 kilometer. The Waze report was based on data gathered in
September, and traffic is expected to only get worse in the succeeding months with the
Christmas holiday season. Metro Manila has consistently been ranking as among the
to right, shift to Neutral, and rotate the wheel to the right, in just a matter of few
seconds! Without the driver knowing, he already caused a domino traffic jam for the
cars behind him. This wrong move can already add 30 seconds of traffic in every
instance. This might be negligible but try to imagine if 30 jeepney drivers will do this.
This is already a 15-minute delay in our travel time. Because of the nature of our
drivers, jeepney passengers should also be responsible. Wait on the designated loading
areas and depart on the designated unloading areas, not just on any random area on
the street.
with the heavy traffic. Though this might only be a little thing, this will lead to a sudden
these motorcycle drivers, which means, another window of opportunity for a car
accident.
3) Jay Walking
creating a resistance for the traffic flow. If people will just cross the road only at the
In some intersections, traffic signals are somehow ‘imbalanced’. In my own opinion, the
main rule for this is to prioritize the NATIONAL or MAIN roads. This means the traffic
signal should allot more GO time to cars flowing along the national or main roads and
should give a lesser GO time to the cars flowing towards the national or main roads. But
this is not the case in our city. This is where technology comes in. Artificial Intelligent
cameras could be use to monitor traffic and provide balance by adjusting the traffic
signals in REAL-TIME based on the traffic situation in that intersection. There are a lot
of projects in the academe today that focuses on solving these kind of issues and I don’t
Another cause of heavy traffic in the cities is the increase of the purchasing power of
Philippines (2015), young professionals in the Metro tend to buy small cars such as
Toyota Wigo, Mitsubishi Mirage, and Honda Jazz that adds to road congestion. This is
due to the affordability of the said cars, which gives them reason not to use public
transport. Referring back to the study of the EDSA Problem, it dubs the avenue as the
main passageway of the Greater Manila area, the city accounts for 35.7% of the
Philippines’ economic output, 18% of its population and 28% of its motor vehicles. All of
which are accommodated on barely 0.2% of the country’s land area. According to the
study of MMDA, in EDSA alone, there are 247,527 private 4-wheel vehicles that ply
Los Angeles or Mumbai. Although the MMDA, LTO, and other local government traffic
management bureaus have used various tricks in the book from UVVRP (Number
coding schemes), truck bans, metal barriers during BF’s time to APEC’s leftover plastic
barriers that treat us like sheep, cattle or a brainless herd, there is simply no escape in
sight from traffic congestion even with all these schemes… or is there?
Increasing mass transport to handle 5x its current capacity infrastructure for overhead
and underground rail network, plus enough covered walks, people tunnels, people
Manila, and Calabarzon will solve our traffic woes. A major budgetary allocation must be
Driver education is paramount to road safety and discipline. Maybe the passing score
for the licensing test (written and practical exams) should be increased to 88%? One
accident alone or a driver’s error can cost many lives... I say we should set our
apprehend traffic violators, and to determine traffic areas in order to relieve traffic
congestion.
be tolerated anymore.
Metro Manila has only 1,032 kilometers of roads or 3.5% of the total 39,370 kilometers
of roads nationwide. The National Capital Region has only one kilometer of road per
424 vehicles. Adding at least an initial 3,000 kilometer capacity (then doubling it soon
REFERENCES:
https://news.abs-cbn.com/business/10/29/19/metro-manila-traffic-congestion-may-be-
worlds-worst-says-waze
https://www.autoindustriya.com/features/9-ways-to-solve-the-metro-039-s-traffic-
woes.html
https://the11d.wordpress.com/2017/09/09/top-5-causes-of-traffic-in-the-philippines/