“We cannot continue to use our roads for dwelling, business as well sports venues. Roads must be used only for vehicles”
THERE is no denying that by allowing street parking, traffic flow in all the streets in the National Capital Region will slow down significantly.
Prohibit it and traffic flow will undoubtedly improve.
For the nth time, the LGUs of the NCR want to take action by either totally banning street parking or at the barest minimum, impose a partial ban.
This is now the debate going on among all the traffic authorities in the NCR. The latest news that we are hearing is that some kind of a study is being undertaken to determine the best step to take.
We do not know whether this study is in the nature of a survey in the form of collecting traffic data as a basis of decision or simply a discussion about finding the least disruptive solution like allowing parking in some roads while disallowing parking in arterial roads.
This seems to be the drift of the current discussions because this early the MMDA and some LGU mayors are already saying a total ban cannot or is extremely difficult to implement.
But before anything else, let us try to look at the current traffic data related to this parking problem.
The NCR’s area is about 636 square kilometers with a 2020 population figure of about 13.5 million people which should now be a lot more.
The latest available figure for vehicle registration that can be found for the NCR is 3,552,326 for 2023.
No figure is available on how many vehicles will be affected by the ban. Unfortunately also, no reliable official figures can be found on the total length of all roads in the NCR except for national roads which is about 1,166.42 kilometers.
There are no figures for municipal or city roads and, for that matter, private roads.
I remember, however, when I was with MMDA a long time ago, there were something like 4,500 to 5,000 kilometers of roads all over the NCR.
That is for national, city or municipal and private roads.
There must be a bit more now but probably not by much.
From the available road and vehicle figures, we can have an idea of the current vehicle to road ratio and population to vehicle ownership ratio.
As we can see, whichever way one looks at the existing land use of the NCR, it is very problematic due to congestion.
It is like having a house constructed for six people only but is packed with 30 people.
When that happens, no matter how the people in the house try to manage their living conditions, comfortable living is difficult to achieve.
That in essence is what living in the NCR entails.
The plan to ban street parking can therefore be helpful but, corollary to the parking ban, reclaiming the streets taken over by people to build dwellings and establish businesses must also be undertaken. Together, traffic relief would be more substantial.
There is no other Metropolitan area in the world except our NCR that uses its roads the way we do and this culture must now stop.
We cannot continue to use our roads for dwelling, business as well sports venues. Roads must be used only for vehicles.
If the LGUs and MMDA, however, do not have any reliable traffic data to back up their decision, the way to implement the ban is to implement the total ban but give about two weeks for car owners who use the streets for their parking to find remedies to their problem.
Two weeks after the implementation, evaluate the problems encountered then make the necessary adjustments.
It is better to implement the worst case scenario than the partial ban preferred by some LGUs so that whatever adjustments that will have to be made later will be based on what transpired in the two weeks of implementation.
This is a huge undertaking and thorough preparation is needed to ensure that all participants know exactly their responsibilities.
This will guarantee efficient implementation and avoid chaos.
If it will be an MMDA operation with the LGUs assisting, this must be spelled out right from the start. If it is the other way around, this must also be spelled out.
Let’s all hope everything goes well.
