Traffic enforcers on Monday vowed to get tough against erring drivers of both private cars and public utility vehicles who are being blamed for causing traffic congestion along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
Cabinet Secretary Rene Almendras said strict measures against erring drivers will be imposed beginning Monday next week.
The government also identified the southbound lane starting from Shaw Boulevard in Mandaluyong City to Guadalupe in Makati City as having the worst traffic situation on Edsa.
“We will be imposing stricter enforcement and traffic management from Shaw Boulevard to Guadalupe on January 18,” said Almendras. “We will call the attention of private vehicles to get out of the yellow lane, unless they will turn right. If they will not cooperate we will issue tickets.”
Almendras said additional men from the Police Highway Patrol Group and Metro Manila Development Authority will also be deployed to secure and manage the flow of traffic in the area.
The government earlier introduced new policies to ease traffic, and encourage private motorists to leave their cars at home and use the public transportation instead.
Among those measures are the installation of plastic barriers on the congested southbound lane from Shaw Boulevard to Guadalupe, and concrete barriers on Edsa-Connecticut.
MMDA chairman Emerson Carlos explained that the concrete barriers would discourage swerving of vehicles coming from Connecticut going to the Meralco flyover while the plastic barriers will be used in separating public utility vehicles from private cars.
“We have been saying all along that in order to move people, we have to encourage them to leave their private cars and use public utility vehicles, so if you put plastic barriers for public utility buses, buses will move,” he said.
Almendras, for his part, said the business sector was the one who suggested a separator for buses and private vehicles.
“They kept on insisting that it was the buses that cause the problem. So, if you remember they made a public announcement na dapat i-separate public utility buses from the cars, I think this is going to be the answer to that question. We will do it, and we’ll see what happens,” he said.
Observers said the loading and unloading of bus passengers to non-designated areas and the wanton disregard for public and private motorists to traffic rules are the main reason for the road congestion.
“We actually think it will improve the flow of the buses more than the cars. But that’s the whole point. We want to encourage the high occupancy vehicles to move faster. So that’s why we are going to do it. And we’re doing it with the plastic barriers before we put the cement separators, then we can adjust accordingly,” Almendras said.