THE Metro Manila Development Authority on Monday announced it is extending for another six months its “no window hours” policy for the number coding scheme.
The agency made the decision following a consultation meeting with members of the Metro Manila Council, the supervising board and policy-making body of the MMDA, and officials of the Inter-Agency Council on Traffic (I-ACT).
The number coding scheme, also known as the Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, was devised to keep vehicles out of major thoroughfares on certain days based on the last digit of the license plate.
The system corresponds to 1 and 2 for Monday, 3 and 4 for Tuesday, 5 and 6 for Wednesday, 7 and 8 for Thursday, and 9 and 0 for Friday.
The window hours refer to the five-hour (10 a.m. to 3 p.m.) period, but removing this means the vehicles covered by the Number Coding Scheme may not pass Epifanio de los Santos Avenue and other major thoroughfares.
The suspension period of window hours, which was implemented late last October and ended this Jan. 31, was made to decongest traffic in the National Capital Region during the holiday season.
MMDA acting chairman Thomas Orbos said the decision to extend the No Window Hours scheme will not result in people buying another vehicle because the extension will only be temporary.
“We do not see motorists resort to buying another car just to avoid the No Window Hours policy. It is just impractical,” he said.
Orbos said it will be taken up and discussed again at the next regular meeting of the MMC, which is made up of the 17 Metro Manila mayors.
With the consensus of the MMC and I-ACT, the five-hour window for the UVVRP has been suspended.
Under the existing UVVRP, the Number Coding Scheme is also expanded to cover all circumferential and radial roads in Metro Manila.
Areas covered by the scheme are Circumferential Road-5 (C-5 Road), Alabang-Zapote Road, Roxas Boulevard, and in the cities of Mandaluyong, Makati, and Las Piñas.
Other main roads included are Rizal Avenue, Claro M. Recto Avenue, Taft Avenue, Del Pan Street, President Quirino Avenue, Araneta Avenue, Marcos Highway, MacArthur Highway, Shaw Boulevard, Ortigas Avenue, Quezon Avenue, Commonwealth Avenue, Magsaysay Boulevard, Aurora Boulevard, A. Bonifacio Avenue and South Luzon Expressway.
Areas covered by the “no window hour” policy are the following: Edsa, C-5 Road, Roxas Boulevard and Zapote Road as well as the cities of Makati, Las Piñas and Mandaluyong.
Violators will be issued with traffic violation tickets with corresponding P300 penalty.
The Philippine National Police-Highway Patrol Group and I-ACT traffic enforcers will help enforce the policy and go after violators while closed circuit television (CCTV) cameras around Metro Manila are also monitoring violators through a no-contact apprehension policy.
Under the no-contact policy, the MMDA keeps track of motorists’ compliance with traffic rules through its CCTV cameras.
Over the weekend, Orbos also suspended the issuance of exemptions to the number coding scheme, saying the agency is reevaluating existing policies aimed to improve traffic in the metropolis.
“The volume of vehicles is there but we have to revisit the policies on the exemptions under the UVVRP because this might defeat the purpose of reducing the number of cars on the roads,” said Orbos.
Orbos said the agency has been swamped with applications for exemptions from the number coding scheme. He added that the issuance of an exemption from the UVVRP is not mandatory but subject to evaluation and in consideration of exceptional humanitarian reasons.
He also reminded the public that MMDA memorandum circular allows for automatic exemption without the need for exemption certificate under certain circumstances such as vehicles carrying person needing immediate medical attention, official and marked media vehicles, among others.
The Metro Manila mayors had rejected the proposal to have a three-digit number coding in the NCR citing the lack of time and preparation to implement the scheme.
They instead suggested that the MMDA and the I-ACT must intensify the road clearing operations against illegally-parked vehicle, basketball courts, sidewalk vendors and other obstructions on both main and secondary roads.
Orbos said the increasing number of private vehicles is the major cause of the traffic jams along Edsa.
MMDA records showed that more than 6,800 vehicles are using Edsa per hour in one direction higher than the artery’s capacity of 6,000 vehicles per hour. The agency also stated that about 6,000 cars are sold in the country each month, and that 90 percent of the vehicles using Edsa are private.
The MMDA chief is also planning to reimplement the ban on daytime delivery of goods to shopping malls and other commercial centers in Metro Manila, which he said, very effective in reducing road congestion during the holiday season.
The daytime delivery ban ended two weeks ago.