The Metro Manila Development Authority is set to introduce a special lane on Epifanio de los Santos Avenue designated only for a driver with two or more companions in a bid to further ease traffic along the 24-km highway.
Dubbed “High Occupancy Vehicle” lane, the new scheme, according to MMDA assistant general manager for planning Jose Arturo Garcia, will encourage motorists to share ride with others.
“This traffic reduction measure would give privilege to vehicles with many passengers,” said Garcia.
The MMDA will conduct a dry run activity for the new traffic measure beginning Monday (Dec. 11) wherein vehicles with a single rider or occupancy would be barred from traversing the HOV lane.
The HOV lane is the innermost lane of Edsa, closest to the Metro Railway Transit Line 3 (MRT-3) wall.
The MMDA made the move after members of the Metro Manila Council, the agency’s governing board and policy-making body, rejected the proposal of lawmakers to implement an odd-even scheme along Edsa.
“By introducing HOV lane, we are hopeful to decrease by 30 percent the number of private vehicles traversing along Edsa,” said Garcia.
He clarified that HOV vehicles are still subject to existing number coding scheme.
“We will not push through if the measure would be chaotic,” said Garcia.
The MMDA is set to discuss the measure with officials of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board who expressed the planned road-sharing or carpooling scheme.
Should the HOV measure be implemented, violators will be slapped with citation ticket with P500 fine for disregarding traffic sign.
Aside from ground apprehension, Garcia said the MMDA will also utilize the closed circuit television cameras under the no contact apprehension policy.
The scheme will cover the entire stretch of Edsa from Balintawak, Quezon City to Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City which has five lanes: two are designated for public utility vehicles or yellow lanes, while three are designated for private vehicles and motorcycle riders.
Lawmakers earlier urged the MMDA and local chief executives to consider reimplementing the odd-even traffic scheme, which they claimed, would reduce the volume of cars on on Edsa by at least 60 percent.
Quezon City (1st district) Rep. Vincent Crisologo, during a House committee hearing on Monday, proposed to MMDA to enforce an added odd-even policy along the 24-km. highway, on top of the present Unified Vehicular Volume Reduction Program, or the number coding scheme.
“For example, it’s Monday today, sa Edsa ‘even’ ang pwede, ‘odd’ ang bawal. So ang pupuwede sa Edsa ngayon [cars with plate numbers ending in] two, four, six, eight, and zero. Pero dahil Lunes ang [cars with plate number ending in number] two bawal. So ’yung (cars with plate numbers ending in) four, six, eight, and zero lang ang puwede,” he said.
Under the present policy, two ending plates are banned to use main roads in Metro Manila daily.
Other lawmakers are also proposing increasing the number of banned ending plates per day to three.