For 2nd straight year, Metro Manila looms as worst city in the world to drive in —Waze

A September 2019 study by navigation software Waze found that Filipinos will need five minutes to travel a one-kilometer stretch of road due to the country’s traffic woes.

According to a Monday report by Saleema Refran for 24 Oras, this figure heightens the possibility that Metro Manila will be named the worst city in the world to drive in for the second year in a row.

The Metro Manila Development Authority (MMDA) pointed to vehicle volume as the cause of traffic.

“The problem is volume. So we can only do so much to manage such number of cars on a limited road network,” said MMDA’s EDSA Traffic chief Bong Nebrija.

According to a volume count survey by the MMDA in July, a 23.8-kilometer trip from Monumento to Roxas Boulevard through EDSA will take one hour and 11 minutes for private cars and nearly 2 hours for buses.

At present, an estimated 405,000 vehicles ply EDSA daily.

Waze data show that this number rises by 10 percent during November and December due to the holiday season, with most motorists heading to shopping malls, restaurants, hotels, banks, and grocery stores.

Last year, the busiest time for supermarkets in the country was the weekend before Christmas. —Julia Mari Ornedo/LDF, GMA News