TRAFFIC CONGESTION

IN
MANILA
(Analytic Paper)

Submitted by:

Lean G. Maquincio of 12 - ABM7

Submitted to:

Ms. Joyce Ann C. Timosa

ISSUE:

TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN MANILA

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

is that? And what will happen because of that?

Traffic Congestion: What does it mean?

Traffic congestion is a state wherein transport is slowed, and more vehicles are

queueing on a given road. Though congestion is a possibility regardless of what mode

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

Rodriguez was quoted in a Bloomberg report. This is worse than Bogota, Colombia

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

worst cities in the world to drive a vehicle. 

TOP 5 CAUSES OF TRAFFIC CONGESTION IN MANILA:

1) Jeepney Stop Anywhere, Anytime

Jeepney drivers seem to have the vision of

Cyclops and the quickness of The Flash.

They can instantly see a passenger who is

waiving his/her hand from 300 meters ahead

and immediately snap his Turn Signal Switch

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.

2) Motorcycle Skills Challenge

Motorcycle drivers nowadays are trying to

compete with Kyrie Irving and Stephen Curry

in a skills challenge on the road. They are

able to do a ‘thread the needle’ pass in a

very narrow allowance between cars and

zig-zag their way ahead in order to get away

with the heavy traffic. Though this might only be a little thing, this will lead to a sudden

braking or change of direction of the vehicles. Drivers also needs to add attention to

these motorcycle drivers, which means, another window of opportunity for a car

accident.

3) Jay Walking

If someone thinks that jay walking could not

cause any traffic, you are wrong! Drivers need

to hit the brakes to slow down or even stop the

car to give way to the people crossing the road.

Of course, this affects all the cars behind,

creating a resistance for the traffic flow. If people will just cross the road only at the

pedestrian lanes, this could have been minimized.

4) Imbalanced Traffic Signals

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

know if the government is planning to do something about it.

5) Growing Number of Private 4-Wheel Vehicles

Another cause of heavy traffic in the cities is the increase of the purchasing power of

most people in Metro Manila. According to Euromonitor’s Consumer Lifestyles in the

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

everyday. It has the highest number compared to motorcycles, taxi, bus, and trucks.

POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS FOR TRAFFIC CONESTION:

Improve the Mass Transport System

The daily traffic in epic proportions and the

disparaging results of this can only be attributed

to the lack of a proper and adequate mass

transport system in the country. Any modern

society faces the imminence of traffic congestion

regardless of the continent it is found, just think of

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

movers. A total infrastructure project covering Olongapo to Pampanga, Bulacan, Metro

Manila, and Calabarzon will solve our traffic woes. A major budgetary allocation must be

done to bring this project into fruition.

Stricter driver's license issuance and renewal

A driver that has been educated on the perils off and

on the road would be more cautious and safety-

conscious. A no-nonsense implementation of

penalties whenever a traffic law or ordinance is

violated would deter callous or complacent drivers.

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

standards higher. Much higher.

Only road-worthy vehicles should ply the streets

This proposal does necessarily mean that only

recently-bought vehicles should be allowed on the

road. Those vehicles with broken tail lights,

headlights, colored signal light other than regulated

should be taken off the streets. A smoke belching

vehicle that fails the smoke belching test the third

time ought to be decommissioned. This is necessary because 85% of air pollution in

Metro Manila comes from vehicles. Don’t we have a right to a balanced and healthful

ecology, err clean air to be specific?

Modern traffic regulation systems 

Our traffic lights should be coordinated or

synchronized. Even the newly-installed traffic lights

in Makati sometimes are not synchronized with the

pedestrian crossing lights. Traffic Volume Sensors

should be installed, as well as traffic cameras to

apprehend traffic violators, and to determine traffic areas in order to relieve traffic

congestion.

Coordinated road infrastructure projects and urban planning

Coordinated road expansion, canal drainage,

drillings on the road including pipe laying,

construction of additional bridges and vertical

parking structures should be provided. Vehicles

parked on secondary and teritiary roads should not

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

thereafter) inclusive of bridges leading to and from Metro-Manila to the nearby

provinces, and the highways should be planned.

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/