MMDA proposal: Your new and old cars will have the same ending plate

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has been hard at work finding new solutions to help with the traffic congestion inside the Metro. Aside from proposing new coding schemes to hopefully lessen the amount of traffic accumulating on our roads, the government agency has another interesting alternative.

The government agency has recently stated during a press conference that it wants to issue the same license plate ending number to new car buyers that already have an existing vehicle. This means that if your vehicle has a plate number that ends in 5 your new vehicle will be issued a plate that also ends in 5. With this in mind, the MMDA will have to work closely with the Land Transportation Office (LTO) to make this proposal work.

The whole purpose of the same ending plate proposal is to hopefully eliminate the trend among more affluent motorists that buy a second vehicle with a different ending plate to skirt around the current number coding scheme. 

There was, however, no mention of motorists buying from the second-hand market and how it will affect this proposed new plate number scheme. Given that these vehicles are already registered and already have their plate numbers assigned to them, the second-hand market could see a boom if and when this new same plate-ending proposal takes into effect.

In any case, it's still a possible solution to an ever-growing problem inside Metro Manila as traffic has gotten significantly worse over the recent years. The question now remains, will this new proposal work to lessen the amount of traffic, or will another solution such as bolstering public transportation or giving alternative means of transportation such as biking better infrastructure solve this long-running problem. 

While no official announcements have been made by the government agency, we will update you if and when it gives out any more information about its new plans for a number coding scheme.