MMDA back to drawing board in finding traffic solutions - Torre

The Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA) said Wednesday it is considering various actions that could help address the traffic in the National Capital Region, especially in EDSA where 450,000 vehicles travel daily. 

“Hanggang ngayon po ay nagto-thought experiment, kagaya ng ginawa ko last week, nagpo-float tayo ng mga mararaming idea kasi kailangan natin ang talagang maraming idea para masubukan talaga kung alin ang magwo-work,” said MMDA General Manager Nicolas Torre III in “Bagong Pilipinas Ngayon.”

(Until now, we have been doing thought experiments; just like what I did last week, we are floating many ideas because we really need a lot of ideas to truly test which ones will work.) 

Torre noted the heavy volume of traffic in EDSA which is supposed to only have a capacity of up to 300,000 vehicles. 

“Kasi sa ngayon, kasama sa primary na nakikita nating problema natin ay ang overloading ng mismong mga kalsada natin like EDSA na ang carrying capacity niyan ay nasa 250,000 to 300,000 lamang, pero sa ngayon nakikita natin ang dumadaan diyan na sasakyan ay nasa 450,000 average daily,” the MMDA official said. “So may mga 45 to 50% ang overloading natin.” 

(Right now, among the primary problems we see is the overloading of our roads themselves, like EDSA. Its carrying capacity is only around 250,000 to 300,000, but currently, we see that the vehicles passing through there average 450,000 daily. So, our overloading is at about 45% to 50%.) 

According to a report by the TomTom Traffic Index for 2025, the Philippines was the most congested country in Asia, with a congestion level of 45%, followed by India and Singapore, which both logged a congestion level of 37%.  

The same report cited Davao City as the most congested city in the Philippines, ranking 12th out of 482 cities around the globe. 

For now, the MMDA said that it has to revisit some processes to address the traffic woes in the metropolis. 

“So, we are doing thought experiments, we are revisiting the processes. Nakikita ninyo may mga inilalabas kaming mga advisories na a little tweaks sa ating mga traffic enforcement at traffic engineering natin,” said Torre.

”Pero sa ngayon ay balik sa drawing board, pag-aralan natin especially on the latest data ng TomToms na second na tayo sa worst or among the worst traffic congestions in the whole world,” he added.

(So, we are doing thought experiments, we are revisiting the processes. You can see that we are releasing advisories regarding little tweaks to our traffic enforcement and traffic engineering. But for now, it’s back to the drawing board; let’s study this, especially based on the latest TomTom data showing that we are second worst, or among the worst traffic congestions in the whole world.) —RF, GMA Integrated News