Alfonso, Geonel Marko P.

2012040368
4POL2 October 21, 2015
Land Transportation Traffic: A Progress or Regress?

Traffic, it refers to the movement of vehicles on a public highway. Land transportation

traffic is crucial in our everyday lives, it affects not only our time, convenience, and our mood but
it also affects our economy and money is also lost when there are traffic jams in major roads and
highways. With the government doing its best to fix it does it necessarily mean that it is a sign of
progress? To proceed, the main argument of this study is to identify on whether Land
Transportation Traffic in the Philippines is seen as a progress or a regress in the country’s
performance. Are the new infrastructures and traffic regulating laws a help or somehow a regress?

Heavy traffic has been the problem in the Philippines for many years especially in the
capital city of Manila. Authorities and institutions tend to fix this with the following solutions such
as truck bans, u-turn schemes, and the UVVRP (number coding). Are these schemes efficient and
do they help in progress? The number coding schemes seem to be effective in a way that it
decongests the roads in the Metro and it can lessen the heavy traffic in the city. While on the other
hand, according to the authors Regidor and Tiglao (2007) the tuck ban is somehow unnecessary
as it has minor effects in traffic decongestion because tucks are exempted from the coding scheme
and they tend to cause heavy traffic when the ban is lifted in a certain day. What’s worse is that
truck bans can affect the country’s economy as delivery of goods and cargo come in late (Regidor
& Tiglao, 2007). As to the U-turn schemes the assessment of the authors say that:

“The scheme is also perceived to create more vehicular conflicts compared

to signalized control due to the proliferation of weaving in traffic. This translates
into a higher accident potential for motorists. Currently, accident data related to the
implementation of the U-turn scheme is still not reliable due primarily to
underreporting of incidents.” (Regidor & Tiglao, 2007, p.21)

Even though U-turn schemes are a help in traffic solution it is evident that one must have
effective and fair evaluation of any traffic management scheme must include an objective
assessment of the safety aspect and not be limited to indicators of traffic flow efficiency (Regidor
& Tiglao, 2007).

The article titled Alternative Solutions to Traffic Problems: Metro Manila in Retrospect by
Regidor and Tiglao some how tells us that there isn’t much of an improvement when it comes to
our land transport system in the metro is somehow substantial for now but not in the future as there
will be more vehicles. I think that the best solution to this is answerable by new structures such as
extended and better railway systems and newer transport systems that is efficient and can lessen
the jeeps, buses, and also private vehicles in the road.

Behavior is one of the factors on why heavy traffic in land transportation occurs, behavior
of not only the drivers but also the behavior of the traffic enforcers and pedestrians also affect and
influence the flow of the traffic in the metro. The factors that make the Philippine land
transportation traffic in a bad state as pointed out by Michael Brown (2012). Brown dictates some
factors on why heavy traffic still haunts the streets and highways of Manila. One major factor is
that the current traffic management mind-set in Metro Manila places absolutely no responsibility
on drivers to self-comply with traffic rules. Enforcers use a ‘cattle-herding’ approach (focusing
almost exclusively on public buses), resulting in a semblance of order only when an enforcer is
present and actively engaging with drivers. This ‘catch me if you can‘ approach simply cannot
effectively control the behavior of more than a million aggressively-driven vehicles (Brown,
2012). The

different behaviors that were mentioned by Brown (2012) are the following: Public
bus/jeepney behavior, Turn-lane behavior, Intersection behavior and Pedestrian behavior. The
PUV behavior is when the drivers tend to drop and get passengers everywhere even though there
are no bus stops or loading/unloading zone in which this causes traffic build up as the roads get
clogged with public vehicles stopping from point to point. In the turn lane behavior It is common
to see all straightaway lanes blocked by vehicles waiting to turn. The chokepoints created by this
behavior cause considerable congestion as straight-moving vehicles try to squeeze through a
reduced number of straightaway lanes and this is caused by poor driver planning or lack of
discipline. Third, is the intersection behavior in which drivers at the head of the line often attempt
to cross through the intersection even after being directed to stop. Unable to cross completely, they
find themselves sitting in the middle of the intersection, blocking the path of the newly crossing
traffic. Cross-traffic must now navigate around this chokepoint, forcing many drivers to wait an
additional cycle (or more) before crossing through the intersection themselves. This is evident in
many intersections with stop lights inside the metro especially during rush hours. The last behavior
is the most common Pedestrian behavior in which being essentially invisible to traffic enforcers,
pedestrians are also ignored by drivers. Crossing in a marked cross-walk is no safer for a pedestrian
than jaywalking. Whether on a major roadway or in a suburban neighborhood, vehicles simply do
not yield to pedestrians. In fact, it is not uncommon to see pedestrians, who are already inside a
marked cross-walk, being forced to stop in mid-crossing for passing vehicles (Brown, 2012).

The following suggests that the Philippine Land Transportation Traffic is not a sign of
progress but rather a challenge that turns to a regress as the people get used to it. I don’t think that
those are the only problems, I think that frequent construction/repair of roads also make an impact
in heavy traffic as sometimes, roads that are being constructed are not even broken. Another factor
is that every year, the number of vehicles increase and it leads to a more congested road. The
government should be strict about this cases and should imitate on what the other countries are
doing such as phasing out old models of cars and also issuing a permit to own cars should also be
strict. With the facts, it is evident that the transport system is a mess and it it turning out into a
regress rather than a progress as time goes by. These facts should be a lesson for the people and
the government as not only money is at stake here but also the lives of the people and the future
of the Philippines.
 Bibliography
Regidor, J. F., & Tiglao, N. C. (2007). Alternative Solutions to Traffic Problems: Metro Manila in
Retrospect. Retrieved October 20, 2015, from
http://ncts.upd.edu.ph/old/research/docs/research/papers/jrfregidor20070614-WCTR.pdf
Brown, M. (2012, April 19). Traffic Solutions for Metro Manila: A Realistic Approach . Retrieved
October 20, 2015, from Invest Phiippines:
http://www.investphilippines.info/arangkada/traffic-solutions-for-metro-manila-a-
realistic-approach/