MMDA to test ban on solo-occupied vehicles from EDSA next week

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) has published more details about the proposed ban on solo-occupied vehicles on Epifanio Delos Santos Avenue (EDSA). And with that, the agency also announced that it will dry run the policy next week, starting Wednesday, August 15, 2018.

As approved by the Metro Manila Council (MMC), the governing and policy-making body of the MMDA, the new policy is called High-Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) Traffic Scheme, and its goal is to alleviate the heavy traffic experienced by motorists every day on one of Metro Manila’s major thoroughfare. With the said scheme, single-occupied private vehicles will be restricted to ply along the entire EDSA during rush hours. It will be tested for one week.

[UPDATE] MMDA suspends HOV Traffic Scheme until MMC votes otherwise

As defined by MMDA, rush hours will be from 7:00 to 10:00 a.m. and from 6:00 to 9:00 p.m. In addition, No Contact Apprehension Policy (NCAP), which uses high-powered cameras, will also be used to implement the new traffic scheme.

According to Garcia, MMDA’s traffic simulator concluded that the policy will decrease travel time and increase travel speed on EDSA. He also added that the HOV Traffic Scheme will decrease the number of vehicles on the said road by 40%.

Based on EDSA’s 2017 annual average daily traffic (ADDT), 367,738 vehicles traverse the road, wherein 67% are private motor vehicles. Furthermore, 60-70% of these cars are single-occupied or an average of 148,516 to 185,645 in actual units per day.

Garcia admitted that MMDA is aware that side streets and alternate routes may become congested when the HOV Traffic Scheme takes effect. However, he pointed out that the agency has been relentless in clearing secondary streets, but appealed further that they can only do so much. With that, the cooperation of everyone is needed.

Source: MMDA Facebook