Welcome solutions to traffic jams at Edsa intersections

At last, Metropolitan Manila Development Authority’s acting chief, Tim Orbos, finally got it (“Jeepneys can no longer cross Edsa under MMDA’s next traffic measure,” Metro, 2/3/17).  For so long, Inquirer letter-writers have been saying there is no substitute to enforcing discipline among jeepney drivers who don’t give a hoot about the traffic jams they cause everywhere.

The most obvious breakdown of traffic order and discipline can be seen at any corner before and after crossing Edsa. We see this happening every day at the junction of Edsa and Kamuning-Kamias link where jeepney drivers compete to pick up passengers under huge signs prohibiting loading or unloading at both corners.  Hogging practically all lanes and stalling all vehicles behind them, they block the free flow of vehicles on Edsa in both directions.  This is replicated in many other same-level intersections along Edsa, like the Santolan junction.

As his traffic enforcers are themselves hopelessly too blind or stupid to see why traffic on Edsa gets clogged all the time, Orbos is right to do the next best thing: Make those unwieldy jeepneys disappear physically from Edsa altogether.

Of course, we might have gone for him just pounding the heads of stubborn jeepney drivers and his good-for-nothing traffic enforcers instead; but what the heck—we will take any possible solution in any form or shape it comes. That’s how desperate the situation has become, despite President Rodrigo Duterte’s brag to solve the traffic problems on Edsa within 100 days.

JAN VINCENT L. MARTINEZ, [email protected]