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Tag Archives: MMDA
On parking for typhoons
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recently issued a memo to shopping mall operators in Metro Manila in relation to the anticipated arrival and onslaught of a super typhoon. I reproduce the memo below:
As of this morning, most if not all mall operators (at least all of the major ones – SM, Robinsons, Ayala and Megaworld) have responded positively. Some observations this morning though shows a lot of people already lining up their vehicles at the malls to take advantage of the free parking. It seems a lot of people have misunderstood the memo and responses (from the malls) to mean there’s free parking from today til Monday. Let’s assume that most of these people live in flood prone areas and that many of them probably don’t have garages in their homes. This somewhat shows us another angle of vehicle ownership and the lack of parking for many. It also somehow tells us something about our dependency on cars and how we really need to have a better transportation system.
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Needed: MMDA Transport Authority similar to Transport for London
I am sharing this article from Business World about the idea (or is it already a proposal) for an MMDA Transport Authority. I seem to recall there were already proposals for something like this but I have to check for references and sources. In the meantime, I am content with sharing the following:
On Nov. 11, 1999, the British Parliament established the Greater London Authority. Prior to that, there was no single entity managing the entirety of London. The governance of the city was fragmented, and responsibilities for planning, transport, and other city-wide matters were divided between local boroughs and national authorities. The Greater London Authority was established […]
Source: Needed: MMDA Transport Authority similar to Transport for London
Traffic congestion along EDSA
I’ve taken some photos of EDSA traffic as well as the EDSA Carousel buses. Here are the more recent EDSA photos I took as I traveled from Makati to Quezon City after serving as a panelist in the Energy Transitions Dialogue last Wednesday.
I took this photo as we passed Guadalupe. I like this in the sense that it shows the clear ROW for the EDSA Carousel buses. One wonders why most of these motorists would prefer to drive their vehicles rather than take the bus or the MRT.
You can see in the photo that EDSA’s northbound side is clogged as far as the eye could see. If you check the image under the MRT bridge, it shows the southbound side was also congested. These photos were taken around 4 PM so this was still an hour before most people would be going home from work.
I mentioned in my comments at the panel that one consequence of giving number coding exemption to electric and hybrid vehicles is that this further diminishes the effectiveness (is it still effective?) of the MMDA’s number coding scheme. I don’t have the stats of how many EV’s and hybrids are registered and running in Metro Manila. Those numbers combined with actual counts will tell us how they are impacting traffic. That would be a nice topic for a paper. 🙂
The photos pretty much describe the transport situation in Metro Manila. Many of our major cities will be heading this way unless they improve their public transportation fast. If they do, then public transport mode share will be sustained if not increased. Metro Manila’s is already being eroded by inefficient public transport, motorcycles (including taxis) and perhaps unintentionally, electric and hybrid vehicles.
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On the pushback vs. bike lanes
I saw this short article at Planetizen that linked to another article that was the original one about cities dismantling or removing bike lanes. This is a very concerning trend in the US but something that’s also happening here. The Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) has always been lukewarm to bike lanes (parang napipilitan lang), the Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) seemed never to understand it (even during BF’s time as Chair), and many local government units that jumped on the bike lane bandwagon during the COVID-19 pandemic have reneged on their declared commitments. Currently, it seems that only cities like Quezon City and Iloilo City have sustained bike lanes development. Others have removed protected bike lanes or have not enforced vs. motor vehicles encroaching on the bike lanes.
Johnson, R. (February 18, 2025) “Cities Start to Backpedal on Bike Lanes: A Growing Crisis for Cyclists,” Momentum Mag, https://momentummag.com/cities-start-to-backpedal-on-bike-lanes-a-growing-crisis-for-cyclists/ [Last accessed: 3/2/2025]
To quote from the article:
“Bike lanes have become a culture war where those in favor are seen as “woke” or some other terrible conservative slur. But, most who use bike lanes are just regular people who want to save some money, and get the mental and health benefits to cycling to work.
Urban cyclists, bike commuters, and advocates for safer streets, have all noticed a troubling trend. What was once a symbol of progress toward sustainable transportation and safer roads for all is being reversed in multiple cities across North America.”
Will bike lanes and cyclists suffer similar setbacks here? Will the Department of Transportation (DOTr) continue to champion bike lanes? Will the agency be more aggressive and assertive of bike lanes development? Your guess is as good as mine!
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“Coding exempt” vehicles and the demise of the coding scheme
I saw this car ahead of me during my commute. I knew this was an electric vehicle and these as well as hybrid ones were given an incentive in Metro Manila. They are “coding exempt” meaning these vehicles can be driven any day and ay hour during the weekdays.
Are they selling these ‘coding exempt’ accessories or do these go free when you buy these cars?
People ask if the number coding scheme (UVVRP) in Metro Manila is still effective or relevant. Well, the answer is a ‘no’ and that is because over time, people have adjusted to it. Car owners have bought a second, even third vehicle that they call their ‘coding’ vehicle. Others opted to purchase motorcycles. And so that’s what we generally see along most roads in Metro Manila. It didn’t help that hybrid and electric vehicles are given exemption from the coding scheme. Those who can afford to buy yet another vehicle or perhaps replace their conventional ones are already buying these as evident from their increasing presence along our roads. While there is the perceived benefits with less emissions and air pollution, we still lose with congestion and its derivatives. Perhaps we should already have a congestion pricing scheme implemented for Metro Manila like the one in New York City. And proceeds should go to the improvement of public transportation to help arrest the erosion of its mode share in favor of private vehicles.
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To B(RT) or not to B(RT)?
I kind of expected questions or comments from my ‘students’ after my lecture last Wednesday about “Traffic Congestion.” Among my slides were those featuring solutions to transport and traffic problems. I presented both soft and hard approaches including travel demand management schemes and infrastructure that we should have built decades ago. The uniformed officers who were there had a very simple take on congestion – it’s basically because of a lack of discipline. While theirs may also be valid observations based on their experiences, ‘discipline’ is not the most critical problem that we have especially considering the ever increasing demand for travel. One government official present was very direct in his question about what I thought about the MMDA’s pronouncement that they plan to remove the EDSA Bus Carousel. I thought my reply and the following explanation was clear – it was a wrong move.
The EDSA Bus Carousel is simple. Bus lang sa bus lane (Only buses along the bus lane). Pag may private or pa-VIP, bawal at huli dapat (If there are private vehicles or those who regard themselves as VIPs using the lane, then they should be apprehended. An HOV (high occupancy vehicle) lane is more difficult to implement. Mas pahirapan ang pag monitor and enforce (It is very difficult to monitor and enforce). So this proposal to phase out the EDSA bus lanes don’t make sense from this perspective. In fact, I don’t agree with a couple of more senior transport experts who say that the MRT Line 3 is sufficient and that it hadn’t reached capacity yet. It has but in the time that the carousel has been operational, the carousel had absorbed much of the demand along the corridor. There is also the fact that it will take much time before Line 3 is upgraded. Are the new train sets here? Are the stations designed for these trains and more passengers? If the answers are no, then MRT3 will not have its capacity increased in such a short time. That also means the carousel is very much relevant not just to supplement MRT3 capacity but as a needed alternative mode for commuters.
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Is the MMDA’s coding scheme still effective?
That’s actually a title of a paper or article I co-wrote before. At the time, which was over a decade ago, we were revisiting certain travel demand management (TDM) measures being implemented in Metro Manila. We already concluded that the effectiveness of the number coding scheme has been reduced mainly as people bought a second, third or more vehicles to be able to use any vehicle on coding days.
Since then, coding’s effectiveness continued to be eroded by a combination of increasing vehicle ownership (including more vehicles operating as ride hails) and the rapid increase of motorcycles.
More recently, government decided to give push for electric and hybrid vehicles. The MMDA made these coding exempt, which perhaps is an example of instituting a policy with unintended consequences. I say unintended here because the agency seems oblivious to the fact that people will likely get that second, third or more vehicle. And that will be an EV or hybrid. Manufacturers are already marketing these as ‘coding exempt’ and they are making a good sales pitch here.
Maybe it’s time to revisit coding and re formulate it? But then coding wasn’t supposed to be sustained as long as it has. Government should be more aggressive and decisive for public transport in order to retain and increase mode shares that have also been reduced by more private vehicle and motorcycle use.
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Another roadblock for active transport?
The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) recently released what they claim to be their counts of bicycle traffic along major roads in Metro Manila from 2020 to 2023.
These are supposed to be official data as it is issued by the government agency in-charge of traffic management for Metro Manila roads (aside from its other functions and roles). What are not stated, and are actually very important details, are the locations of the counts and when the counts were conducted. The Traffic Engineering Center (TEC) that was under the DPWH and currently with the MMDA used to publish traffic volume maps for major roads in Metro Manila. So along EDSA, for example, the volume per section are shown on the map. The same for other major roads like Commonwealth, Quezon Avenue and SLEX. The thicker lines mean higher volumes along those sections, and vice versa. However, they did not consciously count bicycles (only motor vehicles) and perhaps MMDA only started counting during the pandemic (i.e., 2020). So there is no one value to represent a road. And counts vary over time of day, day of the week and even throughout the year (i.e., monthly variations).
There were many reactions to the MMDA’s posting of the data and most were critical and even derided the agency for what to them appeared to be inaccurate data. The problem is that it seems there are no other counts that can validate and perhaps refute the MMDA data. Previous bike counts were not conducted according to how the MMDA and DPWH count vehicles. That is, counts are typically done over a 14 or 16-hour period and ideally on several days in a year. Expansion and conversion factors are applied based on established stations along major roads that are supposed to have more frequent if not continuous counts. This methodology is how Annual Average Daily Traffic (AADT) is computed. Call it car-centric if you like but the methodology is very much applicable to bicycles as well. Peak hour counts for bikes are not enough and the peak hour factor for motor vehicles does not apply to bicycles (if this is to be used to expand/convert peak volumes to daily values). In fact, if you go into the math, there should be a peak hour factor for each type of vehicle considering each vehicle’s volume will vary differently over time. So yes, the solution here is to conduct bicycle counts according to how MMDA or DPWH counts vehicles and these should be done along several stations along major roads (e.g., those in the table above) to validate the MMDA counts.
More on this topic in the next post!
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The wrong message for electric and hybrid vehicles
There are two billboards along Katipunan Avenue, each displayed to face either the northbound or southbound traffic along the busy thoroughfare. The ad by a major Japanese automaker is a sales pitch for one of its electric vehicle models. The ad states one of the incentives or come-ons for electric and hybrid vehicles granted by government (in this case the Metro Manila Development Authority) to encourage people to buy electric or hybrid vehicles; ideally to replace their fossil fuel-powered vehicles.
Electric and hybrid vehicles in Metro Manila are exempt from the MMDA’s number coding scheme. The ad is clear about that especially as a selling point for the vehicle featured.At this point, more electric and hybrid vehicles would probably translate to more traffic congestion. They will just be replacing the conventional vehicles if not adding to them. The incentive will actually backfire vs. the MMDA since the number coding scheme will eventually be rendered ineffective (di pa ba?) with the addition of these coding-exempt vehicles.
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Still on the Katipunan zipper lane
I’ve occasionally arrived at Katipunan with the experimental zipper lane still in use. I usually take Major Dizon from Marcos Highway in order to have a chance of using the zipper lane. That is, I take the left-most lane of C5 so I am in a good position in case the lane was available when I get to the Ateneo area. Perhaps it is already assumed that the right most lanes are already dedicated to vehicles bound for Ateneo or Miriam (mostly Ateneo I suppose).
So far, I’ve been able to use the zipper lane only once. On the other times, I stay on the left-most lane (beside the island) of Katipunan/C5. The zipper is relatively short as vehicles return to the correct side of the road at Ateneo Gate 3. The merging there means slower movement of both the zipper lane and the median lane traffic. So is the zipper lane a success? I would say the experiment is just above “marginal success” (or pasang awa) given its limited application. It doesn’t hurt to implement the scheme as traffic along the southbound side of Katipunan is generally light anyway.
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Caught (up) in traffic 