Traffic solution eludes Metro

by Franco Jose c. Baroña ManilaTimes.net

AS the Philippine economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, traffic congestion has returned to hound Metro Manila motorists and commuters.

“Traffic is, counterintuitively, a sign of progress. Any progressive city will start facing congestion. The issue is how quickly can infrastructure come up with solutions to be able to resolve that?” said George Royeca, CEO of the motorcycle hailing company Angkas on “Business and Politics,” a weekly program on SMNI hosted by The Manila Times Chairman and

CEO Dante “Klink” Ang 2nd. Royeca said “people should realize by now that it really takes a whole of society approach” to prevent the metropolis’ main streets from clogging up.”

“To effectively solve the traffic issue, there should be a combination of the private sector and government efforts,” he said. “And at the end of the day, we all would like mass transportation. That is really the most effective way to fix the traffic issue.”

But the government acting alone “takes a lot of precious time” in finding ways to end traffic congestion, he said.

“The private sector needs to step in to come up with innovative solutions and hopefully we’re one cog in this massive transport machine that keeps the wheel turning,” he said.

Royeca considers the EDSA Busway a “good development,” and added that there were also efforts to push other types of traffic-easing schemes.

“But I think it is just a continuing thing. In the meantime, what we want to be is that ‘feeder service’ into the mass transport,” he said.

Angkas helps the people beat the traffic by offering ride-hailing, delivery or purchase services, Royeca said.

Right now, Angkas is largely used as a “pointto-point” service to move people.

“We could have done more in the infrastructure side. I think there are deficiencies in our transport sector, but eventually, what you’d like in a very mature and established metropolitan is that you have feeder systems coming from your home to the mass transport backbone,” Royeca said.

He cited a study by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) showing that P3.5 billion is lost every day due to traffic

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