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By Jena Balaoro, Reporter
Conclusion
(Metro Manila has tried a number of
traffic-reducing programs but none has worked seamlessly and
effectively. A lot of hope was pinned on the $702.27-million Sydney
Coordinated Adoptive Traffic System or SCATS. Yet the system
has failed to live up to expectations. The conclusion of the series
discusses why.)
Metro Manila’s deplorable traffic condition
has tormented four presidents since the 1986 EDSA revolution. It is
a major socio-economic issue. It is a principal gauge businessmen
use to rate the performance of Philippine presidents. It has dimmed
the luster of the Philippines as a worthy site for foreign
investment.
Every administration has come up with some
attempt to solve the problem. Massive interchanges were constructed.
The color-coding scheme to reduce motor vehicle volume was
introduced. Most recently, the MMDA imposed the no left-turn rule
along EDSA. None of these has eased the horrors of driving in Metro
Manila.
In 1995, government embarked on a
$22.950-million renovation of the metropolis’ traffic light system
in the hope that the Sydney Coordinated Adoptive Traffic System
would at last make vehicular flow smoother. But SCATS has turned out
to be a failure.
The Department of Public Works’ Traffic
Engineering Center chief, Godofredo Galano, blames traffic enforcers
and undisciplined motorists and pedestrians for Metro Manila’s
traffic mess.
He says many traffic enforcers manipulate the
controller of the system installed at intersections. This manual
tinkering results in communication mix-ups that defeat the SCATS’
synchronization program.
He thinks MMDA Chairman Bayani Fernando should
make traffic enforcers and motorists undergo seminars and training
courses on how the SCATS system works.
“It is important for both the enforcers and
the motorists to understand the system so they can cooperate with
it,” Galano explains. “The SMART system works in real time and
reacts to actual traffic flows and other sensor monitored
conditions.” Therefore, no human intervention is necessary — in
fact human tinkering undermines the system.
It infuriates Fernando to hear Galano blame
traffic enforcers. MMDA personnel, he claims, don’t even have the
keys to the SCATS traffic light control boxes.
Galano also blames motorists. Near
intersections, they should never stop over the white lane-separation
lines because the sensors are embedded there. When the wheels of
stopped vehicles cover the sensors, the system can no longer count
the vehicle flow. The system becomes incapable of switching on the
signal lights properly. The disabled sensor gives delayed or wrong
signals. This causes chaos.
“In countries where motorists are disciplined,
such as in Australia and Singapore, the SCATS system works
perfectly,” Galano says.
The MMDA is moving to take over traffic
management in Manila from the TEC. In 2001, Fernando, even before
President Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him MMDA boss, had recommended
that change.
Fernando says: “It’s our prerogative to
operate the system because traffic is under the mandate of the MMDA.
Actually, I’m asking them to transfer everything now to the MMDA
because they did not do that when they were supposed to transfer
everything years back.”
Fernando says the TEC, which is an agency under
the DPWH, is “disorganized.”
“That’s why there’s a disarray in the
traffic. I’m also requesting to manage everything concerned with
traffic that is in the hands of DPWH — including construction,
installation of signal lights and such things. And of course, the
command responsibility over the system must fall on us, because they
don’t want to be subordinated to us,” he says.
Galano doesn’t mind giving up traffic
management to the MMDA but not the 150 employees of the center. He
said the TEC would simply operate in some other cities.
“The MMDA could take over the TEC’s work in
Metro Manila because they have the authority to do so. They can take
our responsibilities but I don’t know if they can take our people.
These are skilled personnel who developed their expertise for the
past 27 years in TEC. The DPWH wants to maintain its experienced
people. They will share their expertise with traffic management
officials in other cities where they will undertake signalization
traffic management projects,” Galano says.
The TEC’s transfer from the DPWH to MMDA was
approved last October. But it has remained unimplemented. Why?
Because, MMDA traffic enforcement division chief Vergel De Dios
explains, negotiations for the handover of TEC equipment and its
building are still going on.
Fernando is studying various options to find the
best way of improving the NCR’s traffic signalization system. He
plans to hire foreign experts to assess SMART/SCATS and find out the
best way to proceed.
Optimistically, he vows to raise average weekday
automotive travel time within Metro Manila to at least 24 kph before
his term expires.
The MMDA is seriously considering two immediate
steps that will radically change Metro Manila traffic flow, some
fear, for the worse. One, to lift the color-coding scheme.
Two, allow trucks to ply the metropolis’ streets all day and
night.
A UP professor of urban and regional planning
disparages Bayani’s traffic reduction schemes. Professor Hussein
Sinsuat Lidasan says these are “short in vision.”
“Fernando’s plans sound good but have not
gone beyond the experimental stage. We need to improve
transportation infrastructure,” says Lidasan. “Government
should take steps to really improve the public transport system. You
can’t effectively discourage people from buying and using their
own cars without giving them an acceptable alternative means of
transport.”
The Light Railway Transit (LRT) Line 1 and the
Metro Rail Transit Line 3 now service hundreds of thousands of
commuters daily. Plans are underway to build Line 2 to link Manila
and Marikina.
“The answers are here. It’s just a matter of
implementation,” Lidasan said.
Part 1
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