President Duterte’s promise to cut down travel time from Makati City to Cubao in Quezon City to five minutes by December of this year going to prove hard realize with the current traffic situation along EDSA, according to an official of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority.
EDSA traffic czar Bong Nebrija said that Duterte’s pronouncement is still away from the current travel time from Makati to Cubao of 40 minutes.
“With the volume of vehicles and failure to get emergency powers, how can you drastically reduce the travel time on EDSA from more than one hour to five minutes?” Nebrija said.
Nebrija said that the agency is looking for new traffic reduction schemes after a court ordered the agency to stop its implementation of the provincial bus ban along EDSA.
According to Nebrija, motorists travel at 19.3 kilometers per hour, which is equivalent to a travel time of one hour and 11 minutes. Buses, on the other hand, travel at 12kph – taking an average of two hours to get from Roxas Boulevard in Pasay to Monumento in Caloocan City.
MMDA’s data revealed that an average of 405,000 vehicles were recorded passing through EDSA last month while 410,000 vehicles per day were counted in September. On December 19, 2018, the MMDA recorded a peak average of 402,000 vehicles.
Nebrija warned that the volume of vehicles along EDSA is expected to increase with the advent of the Christmas season. – With Robertzon Ramirez/STAR
