Manila seeks way out of traffic jams

MANILA - Kit Reyes lives in a city in northern Metro Manila, and works at a call center in Taguig, a city 18 kilometers away but still within the capital city.

To get to work at 9 am, he needs to get up as early as 5 am. Otherwise, he will fail to make it to work on time.

"The distance sounds manageable, to be honest. But if I don't wake up early, I'll lose my job to traffic, and to the unreliability of the train system," he said.

Reyes is not alone in trying to beat the traffic to his job every day in Metro Manila. Traffic congestion is a growing problem for its 12.88 million population.

Felino "Jun" Palafox, the principal architect, urban planner and also the founder of Palafox Associates, an architecture company in the Philippines, said that these transport problems have very bad effects on commuters, who lose nine to 15 years of their 40-year economic lives sitting in traffic every day.

Economically, it costs the Philippines 3.5 billion pesos ($68 million) in "lost opportunities" due to traffic congestion every day, according to a report by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.

Palafox cited the example of Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue, or EDSA, Metro Manila's 23.8-km long circumferential highway that passes through six cities.

"Today, the average speed on EDSA is 11 kph, and if it's payday Friday and raining, we are down to only 2. We are like prisoners on the road," Palafox said.

With the current administration's major infrastructure project, the "Build, Build, Build," the country's transport department remains optimistic that it will be able to deliver better services to commuters in the coming years.

On Oct 15, a Chinese-manufactured train was deployed on the Metro Rail Transit System 3, an above-ground rail line that runs on a north-to-south route along a major highway. It is expected to carry 1,050 passengers per trip. The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority, meanwhile, conducts daily clearing operations in an effort to rid roads of illegally parked vehicles and traffic obstructions.

"We are seeing gradual improvement. For instance, our maintenance provider is rehabilitating our rails. We will start the actual digging for the Metro Manila subway system by December, and a new airport outside of Metro Manila is about to be completed," an official from the transport department said.

"This short-term struggle for commuters is hard, but let's face it, this is all for a long-term goal of providing them better transport. We are focused on that goal," the official added.

Xinhua