That EDSA is synonymous to traffic is a cliché!
Everyone who traverses this thoroughfare is aware of the carmageddon, principally blaming the incessant congestion on the affordability and influx of private cars.
From the time of Noynoy Aquino, resolving this problem has always been in the presidentiables' platform and among their pledges to put an end to the chaotic traffic state in this major transport artery.
Obviously, none — not even the despotic and "promising" Rodrigo Duterte — got to as much as crack EDSA stream.
For one, EDSA accommodates an average of about 400,000 vehicles a day, with congestion and choke points at Taft in Pasay, Guadalupe in Makati, SM North EDSA in Quezon City, and Monumento in Caloocan. The EDSA stretch is 23.8 short kilometers and normal drive should take only about 30 minutes, considering the one kilometer per minute calculated pace drive.
We can no longer put the blame on U-turns as the number is now few and inconsequential. Nor are the buses — since the carousels were in place — causing the congestion.
Simply put, there are just too many private cars jam-packing one main thoroughfare at any given time!
Why not use the Skyway? This is another topic to discuss. For now, Skyway, too, gets congested with the toll fee vs convenience besides.
Last-Mile Connectivity
One time, our group had a lunch meeting at Gateway Araneta. One of our members was just winding up a brunch group meet in the Ayala Alabang area at that appointed time. How did he get to Gateway so fast?
He was able to hitch a car ride to Makati and then hailed a bike-sharing ride to Gateway!
This last-mile connectivity and planning did it. He was forgivably late for only 15 minutes. If he drove his own car, the 31.7-kilometer travel would have taken him at least an hour in regular EDSA traffic condition.
Bikes and micro-mobile modes of transport are the trend. Perhaps scooters and trikes do not have their spaces along EDSA yet, but with the timeless carmageddon why won't our transport gurus consider?
Micro-mobiles are among the realistic solutions to mobility.
Going UrbanT
Core challenges in transportation have potential solutions in turning micro-mobile in the NCR urban setting.
Last-minute connectivity resolves include car sharing, ride sharing, e-hailing, and bike sharing. We have Grab, Joyride, Angkas, TokTok, etc. that could be hailed via downloaded apps where almost everything is cashless.
In the US, anyone with an app and pre-paid accounts or credit cards can get micro mobile rides by getting on and off an electric bike or a scooter.
Data analytics can track your point-to-point ride as each of these has a GPS. Technology can trace the spikes in demand.
Urban Transport or UrbanT advances the vehicle-sharing modes. Filipinos just need to be more disciplined in using these and more honest in tracking (hailing and return). There are specific locations as to where these bikes and scooters could be dropped off.
Radical Solution
Since the lifting of the Covid-19 pandemic, everything has accepted the new normal and slowly shifting to what it used to be, including the traffic.
Workers and employees who inevitably have to take public transport to office or place of work face the same rush-hour problem, day in, day out. They get in line, squeeze themselves in trains and buses, or choose to hail an app-controlled ride.
Former Transport Secretary Arthur Tugade initiated the new technology trends, specifically the last-mile connectivity solutions.
The micro-mobility concept of Tugade, who starred under the past administration, is brilliant. We hope continuing this "small is beautiful" (ctto British Economist E. F. Schumacher) transport key is not taken "politically."
Micro-mobility is the only impervious and radical solution to overhaul the carmageddon on EDSA and major road arteries.
(email opinyon.luchie@gmail.com or luchiearguelles@yahoo.com)
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