The Metro Manila Development Authority is considering imposing a P10,000 penalty on buses that leave the yellow lane in a bid to improve the flow of traffic along Edsa.
Members of the Metro Manila Council, the MMDA’s policy-making body, made this announcement during a recent meeting in Mandaluyong City where they also discussed the fate of the controversial Expanded High Occupancy Vehicle Traffic scheme that prohibits drivers without companions along Edsa during rush hours from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. to 9 p.m., from Monday to Friday.
The MMC is composed of 17 mayors and local government executives in the National Capital Region.
“There were proposals that were raised by the mayors… We will be studying this matter,” said Quezon City Mayor Herbert Bautista, who chairs the Council’s special committee on traffic.
At present, the MMDA penalizes yellow lane violators with P500 fine.
Under the Yellow lane policy, buses are prohibited to go outside the two lanes designated for them while private vehicles may enter the yellow lane only 100 meters before they exit.
MMDA general manager Jose Arturo Garcia Jr. expressed optimism that the new policy would smoothen traffic along Edsa.
The MMC also approved an increase in fines for illegal parking in Metro Manila, from P200 to P1,000 for attended illegally parked cars, and from P300 to P2,000 plus a towing fee for unattended illegally parked vehicles.
“We really need to increase these penalties because our motorists can no longer traverse through alternate routes as these are being obstructed by illegally parked vehicles,” said Garcia.
“We really need to do something and we’re encouraging the people to go for carpooling,” he added.
In the Senate, Senator Grace Poe said the long-delayed release of subsidies for the modernization of the transport sector will be under scrutiny when the Senate discusses the budget of the Department of Transportation.
Poe, the chairman of the Senate public services committee, said the financial assistance of P80,000 given to jeepney drivers to be affected by the modernization program to be insufficient.
Poe said she was not against modernization, but wants to know how the program is being implemented.
She said 600,000 drivers would be affected by the modernization. “If they canceled their route, what will be the substitute? And how can they buy a jeepney which costs P1.2 million to P1.8 million if they will be given P80,000 for the down payment?” Poe said.
