"Most of our motoring problems are self-inflicted."
There is this article suggesting that traffic in the National Capital Region would be better without the number-coding system. With the opening of the economy, traffic is starting to get back to pre-pandemic level. The MMDA is therefore studying whether to bring back the number coding scheme which has been suspended for several months.
One reason given why the scheme should not be reinstated is that it is the reason people buy a second car — this defeats the purpose of the program. Instead, the government should just concentrate on building more roads, metro rails and improving the efficiency of public transport. Bus operations must also improve by requiring that drivers be paid daily regular wages instead of commissions. This will result in better driver discipline and consequently, improved traffic flow.
These suggestions are well taken. Unfortunately, there’s a lot more to it than just that because the overall urban situation is more complicated. And in fairness to the government, a lot of public work projects are going on all over the metro area. Two subway projects and another two ground level rail projects are currently ongoing. In addition, a lot of bypass roads are under construction designed to connect major thoroughfares to improve traffic. The NLEX-SLEX connector road has just been opened. This has reduced congestion along EDSA and provided travelers with another option. Traffic along EDSA will no longer be as bad as before. According to some reports, traffic volume along EDSA has been lessened by more than 150,000 vehicles per day which is significant. In the end however, no matter what the government does, people living in the metro area will still experience traffic difficulties. This is because there are just too many people living in an area too small to make urban living comfortable and less stressful.
The NCR is one of the most congested metropolitan areas in the world. It has a land area of only 619.57 square kilometers with about 12.87 million people according to the 2015 census or a density of 20,640 people per square kilometer. It’s now 2021, which means that there are now a lot more people. It is like packing a house made for 10 people with 40 people. The number of vehicles per kilometer of road is something like 550 which is very high no matter how one looks at it.
As we are now witnessing, the trend is that people are moving north, south or east of the NCR to escape the congestion. There are also the reclamation projects in Manila Bay to expand the land area available for people. The number coding scheme was designed and implemented in the mid-1990s to take 20 percent of vehicles off the roads during the five working days of the week. It has taken root over the last 25 years and remains to this day the only vehicle reduction program of any major metropolitan area anywhere in the world that I know. People have basically accepted this and have adjusted their activities around it.
As to whether the scheme is the main culprit why people buy second vehicles, we do not know this for a fact. No surveys have been published about the number of people with one vehicle buying another simply due to the number coding scheme. Furthermore, the income of the average Filipino is not high enough to make it easy for any individual to buy a second vehicle. It cannot be denied, however, that there are people who can afford to do this but the question is how many and has this greatly affected traffic to render the number coding scheme useless? I do not believe so.
Sure, the ideal thing is to be able to do away with it. But as of now, the program is still useful for the foreseeable future. As to the various public work projects going on, it will take some time before the public can enjoy the benefits. Another project worth mentioning is the San Miguel 19-kilometer elevated freeway along the Pasig River. When completed, this will become the East-West elevated freeway. Hopefully, a way can be found to interconnect it with the NLEX-SLEX connector road to provide an uninterrupted drive to anyone from the east wanting to get out of the NCR either to the south or north. Traffic however, will always be something that will inconvenience all residents in the metro area. Motorization will continue to increase as incomes go up. This will naturally somehow worsen traffic but that is progress.
The article did not mention anything about discipline which is unfortunate considering that with discipline, motorists can solve a significant part of the traffic problems many of which are actually self-inflicted.