THE government is studying the possibility of implementing “congestion pricing,” a traffic scheme being enforced in Singapore where motorists are charged for using major roads during rush hours.
The scheme, according to Metro Manila Development Authority acting chairman Thomas Orbos, is one of the measures being eyed by the government and the private sectors, including transport groups, to solve the worsening traffic problem in Metro Manila, particularly along Epifanio de los Santos Avenue.
“We need a volume reduction measure, whether odd-even, number coding etcetera and 80 percent of the roads is occupied by motorists, there is a logic to that. A solution to that is congestion pricing,” said Orbos.
He said the government of Singapore is offering the Philippine government to study and make plans on how to enforce the measure.
“The Singapore government offered to help us. This is a government to government [project]. Okay, let’s say we lack public transport but are we going to wait? This is why we have schemes whether congestion pricing, odd-even or number coding, prioritizing the public transport,” said Orbos.
“What I’m saying is we need to reduce the number of vehicles time bound, not the whole day. There are several measures that didn’t came from us, some came from the public, consumer groups, academe and telling us if we can consider this and this. We are studying all these measures,” he added.
The Electronic Road Pricing system in Singapore is a pay-as-you-use scheme which charges motorists when they use major thoroughfares during peak hours. Similar to the e-pass system in tollways, motorists install a sensor in their unit that deducts from a stored-value card.
In 1975, Singapore enforced its first congestion charging system. The system improved during the years, from a low tech manpowered system to a high tech digital system. Today 65 percent of the commuters in Singapore use public transport and air pollution reductions are consequently significant.
In New York City, the congestion pricing was proposed for vehicles traveling into or within the Manhattan central business district. The congestion pricing charge was one component of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s plan to improve the city’s future environmental sustainability while planning for population growth, entitled PlaNYC 2030: A Greener, Greater New York.
But the proposal did not succeed, as it was never put to a vote in the New York State Assembly.
The Philippine government earlier formed the Metro Manila Transport Consultative Council tasked to discuss, study and examine a number of proposed measures to further improve the flow of traffic in Metro Manila.
One of the measures being proposed was the re-implementation odd-even scheme, which was first enforced during the time of Orbos’ brother Oscar Orbos as then head of the Department of Transportation and Communications.
But the government under the administration of the late former President Corazon Aquino stopped its implementation following complaints from the motorists and the program’s failure to decongest traffic.
Under the proposed modified odd-even scheme, all public utility vehicles plying Edsa will be exempted from the number coding once the government approved and enforced the modified odd-even scheme for private vehicles along the 23.8-kilometer highway.
The odd-even scheme on Edsa to complement the existing expanded unified vehicular volume reduction program or the number coding scheme being enforced in the National Capital Region.
More than two-million private vehicles will be affected once the government enforced the scheme dubbed as “Windows 2” but Metro Manila mayors stated they will only give the program a go signal if the MMDA would succeed in clearing secondary roads in the NCR of all illegally-parked vehicles and other road obstructions.