When you hear smart suggestions, things don’t seem so hopeless.
Last Feb 5, TV5 hosted the “Bilang Pilipino, Ano’ng Say Mo?” symposium at their office in Mandaluyong City. It’s part of Bilang Pilipino 2016, the network’s dedicated coverage of this year’s elections.
For this particular installment, the symposium’s focus was the subject that gets every Metro Manila resident all riled up: traffic.
Urban planning advocate Karima Palafox and architect Paulo Alcazaren imparted some insights on how the problem could be solved. TopGear Philippines likewise took note of their tips and we’ve used their list as a reference for our own.
Here’s what we learned from Palafox and Alcazaren:
1. Palafox said it’s NOT IMPOSSIBLE to fix Metro Manila’s traffic issues. She said “now is the best time for the Philippine government to find ways on how to encourage motorists to get out of their cars when it’s possible for them to walk.” She told the audience, “When you guys choose whom to vote, go for the one who would really have the political will to apply these difficult solutions that we’re talking about.”
2. Alcazaren warned against the building of more roads, as this would only give the illusion of “space” and lead to even more awful congestion. He said, “It’s an accepted fact even by traffic engineers. The more roads you build, the more traffic you will induce.” An InterAksyon.com report further noted: “Alcazaren says that cleaning and clearing are the first steps; reducing garbage and blockages; and creating more rails than roads.”
3. Stop planning cities based on the needs of cars. “The Big Dig in Boston took down the flyovers; the earthquake in San Francisco took away the flyovers. Once they removed the car-based infrastructure, they found that they revitalized the central cores of cities, which then brought back investment and brought up good density into cities,” stated Alcazaren.
4. Give people safe, reliable, convenient, and efficient transportation alternatives. According to Palafox, “a big part of the issue is that people lack other modes of transport.” She points out that we need “smarter alternatives.”
5. Decongest Metro Manila. Palafox said that “it’s about time we began empowering other metropolitan areas in the Philippines, namely, Iloilo, Laoag and Angeles in Pampanga.” Moreoevr, she said there’s a need to “fix the imbalances in the cities through affordable housing projects and the like.”
6. Make car ownership more expensive. Palafox shared, “In Singapore, aside from congestion charging, they auction out a right to use the road or buy a car. The last auction, a license was worth something like PHP2 million.” She then added that “in Denmark, cars are taxed 180% of their market value.”
7. Give people a reason to love walking again. Palafox suggested closing some roads and make them exclusive for those who want to walk. She explained, “In New York, along one of the most famous streets in the world, Broadway Street, they closed portions of it including Times Square. It may seem counterintuitive, but after a year, the speed of taxis actually increased, so cars ended up being faster.”
8. Educate Pinoys on road rules and etiquette. Both Alcazaren and Palafox said it was imperative that Filipinos learn “to follow traffic rules and regulations and embrace the streets with equanimity.”
Reader Interactions